by Mark Silva
"It's always good to be straight with the American people,'' former President Bill Clinton said in an interview with CNN's Larry King.
The answer had to do with the question of whether President Barack Obama, with the passage of a $787-billion economic stimulus signed into law yesterday, has been speaking too much about the "catastrophe'' that could befall the nation without quick action like this.
It's important for the president, Clinton said in the interview aired last night on Larry King Live, to acknowledge the severity of the problem, but also to hold out hope -- calling the plan, as he has in a few venues, "our bridge over troubled water.''
Is it wise for Obama to continually say how bad things could be? King asked. "I think it's always good to be straight with the American people,'' Clinton said. "The only counsel I would have on the other side,'' he said, suggesting that Obama already is heeding it: "I would like him to say, we haven't hit bottom yet, but we're going to come out of it. ''
At the same time, Clinton said, he does not have Obama's BlackBerry address. Clinton doesn't carry a Berry, he added, though his wife, the secretary of state, does.
Comments
And here come more subtle digs at Obama. Is he really joining the conservatives in accusing Obama of over-hyping the economic crisis, becoming a purveyor of gloom and doom? The press will love this...
http://www.political-buzz.com/
Posted by: matt | February 18, 2009 8:07 AM
How about being straight with the American people about the real intent behind selling their workplace voting rights to the conspiratorial forces of Andy (the Pit Bull) Stern, John (Porky) Sweeney, Jimmy (Hog) Hoffa, and Dick (Thumper) Trumka. After extorting the voting rights of millions of employees from their employers, they now have the power of the presidency to persuade the rest.
Posted by: Free Us From The Employee-Free Choice Act | February 18, 2009 9:01 AM
Since Obama has signed the Porkulous and will continue to ask for trillions more for the bailout failures, the Dems will continue this mantra of political cover of doom and gloom or not yet "hit bottom" and blame everyone and everything as their policies falter. Let's hear it for telling the truth to the American people from the guy who gave us the new definition of the word "is"! Go raise some more money from pardons and sheiks, Bill. Another Democrat hero who, along with Carter and the Dems in Congress, brought us the Community Reinvestment Act and the resultant "toxic" assets that have a great part in this economic recession.
Posted by: Bubba Porter | February 18, 2009 9:16 AM
Bill, Lindy Graham, Henry Hyde, Ken Starr---
while y'all were being "straight" with the American ppl, you sort of ignored some things, like, health care, like social security, like Greenspan's easy credit policies facilitating fraud, like......
O, well, we're supposed to give you a pass because that was then, this is now.
Every once in a while, I like to recall the supposedly "golden Clinton era" for what it really was.
Posted by: ornery | February 18, 2009 9:17 AM
ornery,
Among those looking for a pass are the Dems that sold out to Wall Street and refused to clean up Fannie Mae's disastrous easy credit practices. That would include Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. Now we're surprised the Big 3 weren't put in the black by the $700 billion of taxpayer money to keep them from filing Chapter 11, which is inevitable anyway. We are witnessing the largest transfer of wealth and in the nation's history, and it is not from the haves to the have-nots. It is from the people to a new group of power brokers.
Posted by: Pay to Play | February 18, 2009 10:21 AM
P2P, that wd. make sense if Dems had controlled the Congress from Jan 1995 through Jan 2007, but they did not.
If you are focusing on the period Jan 07 to the present, yes. Nancy & Harry were wimps. They decided to play it safe and not take any decisive measures either to wind down the war(s) or on much of anything else.
Not that Bush wd. have signed any legislation restricting FannieMac or FreddyMae.
Replicans did.
Plus, don't forget the Maestro.
Uncle Al. Greenspan.
He was on last night trying to salvage his "legacy" at the Economic Club of New York. He knew as well as anyone what hanky panky was going on behind those ersatz credit default swap documents, having been on the board of JP Morgan for 7 years or so. He let it go on. He actually has more responsibility even than W, because W gets somewhat of a pass because of his general ignorance and laziness, whereas Greenspan was supposed to be the Maestro, the Wizard of Oz.
Check and see how much money he and Paulson have lost in the debacle. My guess is: not very much at all. They knew the high degree of leverage and risk taking that was going on.
Bush, recall, was all gung ho about his "ownership society" by which he presumably meant home ownership as well as his ill fated scheme for "privitizing" social security.
Clinton was primarily the beneficiary of a very large reduc tion in the "defense" budget.
Sometimes referred to as the "peace dividend".
Well, we know what happened to that. As Barack diplomatically called it, an "unwise" war.
So, welcome to the "ownership society".
Posted by: ornery | February 18, 2009 1:54 PM
Did anyone ask him to be "straight with the American people" on what the word "is" means?
Posted by: Jeff | February 18, 2009 2:08 PM