July 27, 2016

"Bill Clinton had a very difficult job last night: He was tasked with making it seem like Hillary would have been the nominee even if she wasn't Mrs. Bill Clinton, the wife of the former Governor of Arkansas and the former President of the US."

Wrote Tommy Duncan, in the comments to the previous post.

That made me think of this section of Bill Clinton's big speech:
Meanwhile, I was still trying to get her to marry me. The second time I asked, I tried a different tactic. I said, "I really want you to marry me, but you shouldn't do it." She smiled and looked at me like what is this boy up to. She said, "That is not a very good sales pitch." I said, "I know but it's true." And I meant it. It was true. I said, "I know most of the young Democrats our age who want to go into politics, they mean well and they speak well, but none of them is as good as you are at actually doing things to make positive changes in people's lives."

So I suggested she go home to Illinois or move to New York and look for a chance to run for office. She laughed and said, "Are you out of your mind? Nobody would ever vote for me." So I finally got her to come visit me in Arkansas. And when she did, the people at the law school were so impressed, they offered her a teaching position. And she decided to take a huge chance.

She moved to a strange place, more rural and conservative than anywhere she had been. Where she knew good and well that people were wondering what in the world she was like and whether they could or should accept her. Didn't take them long to find out what she was like....
It takes a third asking before she agrees to marry him, but she's already moved to Arkansas and begun living with (near?) him. He's linked her up with a job at the law school where he works. Why would she go and teach in Arkansas if not to be with him? There's a way that you go about getting a lawprof position if that's what you want, and the normal thing to do is to apply to the best schools in the places where you'd be willing to live and to see how well you can do.

Any graduate of Yale Law School would know to do that if she wanted to enter academia. You wouldn't just snap up a job because Arkansas happened to see you when you were in town and threw an offer your way. Obviously, she was stepping down career-wise in order to be with Bill — a man whose offer of marriage she'd already turned down twice.

I know, it's only the story he tells, certainly not the whole truth and possibly hardly true at all, but I'm analyzing the speech. Bear with me.

Later, he buys a house and she — liking the house?! — accepts his offer of marriage, but it's the decision to bag her high-level career and exile herself in Arkansas that's really important, and look why she does it. It's the idea that in Illinois or New York, she'll have trouble establishing a power base, and not just because these places are big, but because "Nobody would ever vote for me." Why not? And what does that have to do with marrying her fortunes to Bill?

We know the answer to that question. It's the basis of the statement in the post title. She had a lot but she lacked something crucial, political charisma. She's still got that problem, even after all those decades of hard work and dogged desire. Bill was the magic missing ingredient, and she needed that in him. I know that last phrase looks like double entendre, but I only mean to dangle that in front of you for your amusement, not because I believe it's true that she wanted him sexually. She wanted his charisma in her, merged with her, giving her what without which Nobody would ever vote for me.

113 comments:

Left Bank of the Charles said...

When she did move to New York, a lot of people voted for her. I think she has the charisma, it's just weighed down by his negative charisma.

Clyde said...

Breaking news: John Hinckley, Jr., to be released and live with his mother. I question the timing. Watch out, Mr. Trump!

Anonymous said...

Later, he buys a house and she — liking the house?!

I call BS. The smart move is to get her involved early. "Honey, I've decided I want to buy a house. How about coming along this weekend and go looking with me. I so much value your input"... pile more BS here, here and here.

make it her house, before she says yes.

Brando said...

He played the most transparent "bad boy" crap in the book--the old "you shouldn't be with me if you know what's best for you" line--and it worked? She must not have been very sophisticated to fall for that crap.

We know why she made that choice. She knew full well she had no charisma--the "no one would vote for me" line was revealing--but that latching on to a "master persuader" (to borrow from Scott Adams) she could get into the halls of power, and maybe use that to get elected herself some day by forcing a fait accompli on the Democratic party. The missing ingredient was, how could she win an election against a Republican? That's where their old buddy Donald Trump came in.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Behind every great woman is a man?

Clayton Hennesey said...

What, exactly, was the magic as a woman that Hillary brought to Bill's marriage? (Obviously, mastering the blowjob was not among her skill sets; married women underestimate such neglect at their peril.)

Or is she at heart nothing more than the organizational utility he described her to be?

They raised one female child who immediately went on to a grossly salary-inflated job before marrying into a hedge fund. Is this the future Democrat little girls now aspire to?

traditionalguy said...

So Trump is not the only deal making Boomer. Hillary is always seeking the deal of the day to further her career. But Hillary's ambition has no boundaries. The people in her way start turning up ruined by slander lies or dead.

Alynsky appealed to Hillary because he taught openly that it is OK to do whatever it takes to win power...like Lucifer did to win his Kingdom. And Hillary's Libyan War victory attached the USA's future to The Muslim Brotherhood's success in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and now Turkey.

It may take a Putin mind to counter this Witch's moves.

Anonymous said...

Hillary Clinton accomplished far more even before marrying Bill Clinton than most women her age, Althouse included. See her Wiki page, it only took me a few seconds to google it. So quit asking (Tim and Birkel) what her accomplishments were as if she had none.

David Begley said...

"Nobody would ever vote for me."

Althouse uncovers the central truth. No one would ever vote for Hillary. Not even Hillary.

Worst. Endorsement. Ever.

Anonymous said...

"Nobody would ever vote for me".

It shows a humility that is in glaring contrast to Trump.

rehajm said...

you shouldn't be with me if you know what's best for you

Don't all the lefties pass along some version of the great life lesson: When someone tells you who they are, believe them.

Brando said...

"What, exactly, was the magic as a woman that Hillary brought to Bill's marriage?"

She must have something that he sees in her. I don't know if he's ever convincingly expressed what it is (every speech he gives about her sounds like rehearsed BS) but there must be something there.

"Hillary Clinton accomplished far more even before marrying Bill Clinton than most women her age, Althouse included."

I realize graduating from a top law school at that time as a woman was a big deal, and serving on the Watergate committee staff is a nice feather in her cap, but this doesn't really launch her into the "qualified to be president" realm. All her "presidential level qualifications"--Senator, cabinet secretary--were clearly sops to Bill Clinton's power among Democrats. Her "accomplishments" from 1992 on was a long string of disasters.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

When she did move to New York, a lot of people voted for her

They voted for her because they loved Bill. Without him, she's still stuck at some obscure law firm protecting child rapists.

How sad is it that the first woman to be nominated for president is totally reliant on her husband for her political success.

MAJMike said...

As much as he does/did admire her, he still cheated on her at every opportunity. She rode his political coat tails to the Senate and, perhaps, the Presidency.

bagoh20 said...

Sounds like Bill has been getting this girl her jobs forever,and that's what he's still doing. Talk about a ball and chain.

bagoh20 said...

It seems obvious to me that he simply does not respect her and probably never did, although he has always had affection for her.

Anonymous said...

What is the magic as a woman, that brought Althouse into Meade's life, or any woman with any man that marries her for that matter. Now we must examine some 'mistruth' what? to the attraction they had for one another? Even Bill's story about their early years is brought under scrutiny by people who are far from perfect themselves.

Sebastian said...

"you shouldn't be with me if you know what's best for you" Of course, by then Hill had figured him out, and realized that the truth was typically the opposite of what Bill said. Being with him was best for her, in her relentless pursuit of power.

"Nobody would ever vote for me" Even though they have maneuvered Dems into having to pick her, the thought still haunts her. Hence the cackling, the screeching, no press conferences, the tightly scripted appearances, the lies upon lies to create a cordon of self-protection.

Of course, all politicians pursue power. In the Clintons' case, the money-grubbing and the sexual escapades suggest that at least for Blll the fringe benefits mattered. Still, for Hill power was it. What does it mean to dedicate one's life to the pursuit of power for its own sake?

Anonymous said...

"Sounds like Bill has been getting this girl her jobs forever,and that's what he's still doing. Talk about a ball and chain."

I suspect she accomplished far more before marrying Bill, than you Bagoh20 at the same age.

Gusty Winds said...

"I knew she was more than just another tap on the shoulder"

Classic. Bill let it be know he was tapping on a lot of shoulders.

Clayton Hennesey said...

NPR is remarking that the story of the first woman being nominated has somehow flown under the radar. Maybe the identification of Hillary as woman has been the missing ingredient.

Ann Althouse said...

"make it her house, before she says yes..."

Ever see that movie "Housesitter." Steve Martin is an architect and he designs and builds a whole house and then suddenly reveals it to Dana Delany along with a marriage proposal? She's pretty much horrified and says know.

That's a really enjoyable movie.

Ann Althouse said...

"Behind every great woman is a man?"

The real reason there aren't more great women. Not enough men performing the backup role.

bagoh20 said...

"I suspect she accomplished far more before marrying Bill, than you Bagoh20 at the same age."

In the things that apparently count, so did Monica Lewinsky.

mikee said...

Nobody would ever vote for her.

Nobody SHOULD ever vote for her.

narciso said...

no they are more like the grifters in american hustle, the alt story to abscam, he is the conman, she is the 'respectable face'

Gk1 said...

If she wasn't married to Bill Clinton we would never have seen her in power. Who's kidding who? That's what attracted me to Carly Fiorina or Margaret Thatcher. They made their own way and didn't ride the coat tales of man to get there. That's a character building road. Nothing was handed to them like Hillary.

Original Mike said...

"Nobody would ever vote for me."

Well, this nobody sure ain't gonna.

bagoh20 said...

"Not enough men performing the backup role."

Things are looking up. Betas have finally been taken off the endangered species list and are flourishing now.

MisterBuddwing said...

Will the real Unknown please ... stand up.

cubanbob said...

Unknown said...
"Sounds like Bill has been getting this girl her jobs forever,and that's what he's still doing. Talk about a ball and chain."

I suspect she accomplished far more before marrying Bill, than you Bagoh20 at the same age.

7/27/16, 9:00 AM:

Or for that matter you but that isn't the point. The point is what has she done throughout her professional life and simply comes down to being Bill's wife: lawyer at a law firm that was big in state matters while the wife of the state's AG and then governor. Wife of the president who campaigned for her run for the Senate. Without Bill she wouldn't be where she is today, however in fairness Bill isn't the most disciplined guy in the world so an argument can be made that without her to focus him he might have never been president. So back to point, her accomplishments are largely getting the job but never actually being any good at them. Hillary is not a natural politician, she just doesn't come across well but for someone who desires a life in politics that isn't an insurmountable obstacle as there many people in office who aren't charmers.

damikesc said...

When she did move to New York, a lot of people voted for her.

New Yorkers are star fuckers above all else. They also voted non-entity Bobby Kennedy to the Senate in spite of him not being a New Yorker.

Hillary Clinton accomplished far more even before marrying Bill Clinton than most women her age

She gave a dull commencement speech. GIRLZ RULE, DOOD!!!

So quit asking (Tim and Birkel) what her accomplishments were as if she had none.

She did get kicked off the Watergate impeachment panel due to ethical violations. That is an accomplishment.

As much as he does/did admire her, he still cheated on her at every opportunity.

I admire Barbara Bush. I wouldn't fuck her if you paid me. Hillary looks like she'd be unbelievably horrible in bed.

What is the magic as a woman, that brought Althouse into Meade's life, or any woman with any man that marries her for that matter.

Neither are using that "magic" to claim that they warrant the Presidency in spite of decades of being one of the most prolific public fuck ups out there.

I suspect she accomplished far more before marrying Bill, than you Bagoh20 at the same age.

I suspect bagoh has broken dramatically fewer laws than she has.

The real reason there aren't more great women. Not enough men performing the backup role.

Not enough women warrant that, either. Two-way streets.

Remember: Sarah Palin got to where she was without riding her husband's coattails to power. She's not a "real woman". Hillary had to sit there while her husband shoved his cock in anything with a vagina and a pulse. She's a feminist hero.

Anonymous said...

Damikesc,
Yes, she has accomplished more than the average woman or man.

PB said...

Never once did Bill mention the "little people" who actually did the work that Hillary claims as her success. Of course, every disaster that occurred under her supervision was not her fault...

bagoh20 said...

"Hillary is not a natural politician, she just doesn't come across well but for someone who desires a life in politics that isn't an insurmountable obstacle as there many people in office who aren't charmers."

Exactly, but she did what she had to. Which I suspect is really the story of the Clinton marriage and it's longevity. Once started, they both needed to keep it intact in whatever form possible.

bagoh20 said...



True. How many Yale graduates fail the DC bar exam?

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Bill Clinton said: " but none of them is as good as you are at actually doing things to make positive changes in people's lives.""

Ok, seriously- what the hell is he talking about? What positive changes in people's lives had Hillary Rodham made at that point? I keep hearing all this talk about how hard she's worked over her whole life to make things better for women and children (and America & the world), but what has she actually accomplished? Is it too much to ask for a few concrete examples?!

Why does no one in the Media ask this? (Just kidding, I know the answer to that one).

Hagar said...

Oe thing I would give Hillary! credit for is grit. She keeps going like the Energizer bunny when anybody else I can think of would have given up by now.

bagoh20 said...

Her opponent has created far more jobs, paid women better, and gotten way fewer people killed.

William said...

I find the Clinton marriage incomprehensible. I can't understand what first drew them together and what has held them together all these years......I vaguely disapprove of Trump's domestic life but it's comprehensible--maybe even aspirational in a libidinal sense. The Clinton marriage in its origin, its durability, and its execution is mysterious and somewhat repulsive.

Wince said...

Why would she go and teach in Arkansas if not to be with him?

She failed the D.C. bar exam but passed the Arkansas bar exam.

On November 3, the District of Columbia Bar Association notified Hillary that she had failed the bar exam. For the first time in her life, she had flamed out — spectacularly, given the expectations of others for her, and even more so on her own. Of 817 applicants, 551 of her peers had passed, most from law schools less prestigious than Yale. She kept this news hidden for the next thirty years. She never took the exam again, despite many opportunities. Her closest friends and associates were flabbergasted when she made the revelation in a single throwaway line in Living History.

Those who knew her best speculated that she must have felt deep shame at her failure, and that her self-confidence — always so visible a part of her exterior — was shattered by the experience (though many first-rate lawyers, even Yale Law graduates, had flunked the bar on their first try).

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Clinton Fatigue.

It's real.

Clayton Hennesey said...

I find the Clinton marriage incomprehensible.

Nonsense. It's exactly what a marriage would look like if aliens stretched human skins over their roach-like exoskeletons.

Brando said...

I do love the fact that we have more than one "Unknown" and they seem to be arguing with one another.

As for the one who seems to think Hillary is super accomplished, it's pretty thin gruel. Some law student involved in campus activism, and her husband-to-be says how much she touched people's lives? Sure, you fluff up the person you care about, just like telling your kids they're special when they are really pretty ordinary. But don't expect the people to buy this.

buwaya said...

Their marriage arrangement isnt surprising. Its very much like that of the Marcoses, the "conjugal dictatorship". Its a partnership for power and wealth. Sometimes it is held together by the implicit understanding of the ability to blackmail the other. Neither can afford to abandon the arrangement.
And Hilary reminds me a lot of Imelda - not in style, but certainly in single minded power-seeking persistence. Mal bicho nunca muere.

Anonymous said...

Bagoh20,

How many people did Bush as President get killed, compared to Clinton as SOS?

Anonymous said...

Brando, I'm not into fluffing up Clinton's credentials, however I'm also not into negating them as is so obviously being done on these threads every time her name comes up. Sometimes the hate of Clinton just becomes all consuming, makes people dumb.

buwaya said...

The Marcoses were if anything more human. They had three kids after all, and both sides have large extended families that participated in the family enterprise and factored to some degree in the calculations of the political alliance. But thats just a cultural difference I suppose.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Ann, anything with Dana Delany in it would be an enjoyable event. I would watch that woman read the telephone book with the sound off.

Yancey Ward said...

The entire narrative Bill Clinton laid out is almost certainly a lie- it simply doesn't pass the smell test on any level. I don't think she ever, not once, had any personal political ambitions until her husband had been elected to the presidency. And the story about how he asked her several times to marry him? I don't believe a single word of it.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Oh I have an achievement for Hillary Clinton. She has killed more people in Libya and Syria each then President Bush did in Iraq and Afghanistan put together during his entire term. She's probably killed more people than that but those two jump out. I think Bush's coup count was assessed on the high side at 200 K, there are four hundred thousand dead in Syria and Libya is probably right up there. Then there is Egypt, Turkey, more in Iraq, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. She certainly has murdered more American citizens without trial.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Unknown said...
Hillary Clinton accomplished far more even before marrying Bill Clinton than most women her age, Althouse included. See her Wiki page, it only took me a few seconds to google it. So quit asking (Tim and Birkel) what her accomplishments were as if she had none.


I took you up on that, Unknown. Prior to marrying Clinton she got an undergrad degree at Wellesley, did some minor campaign work (for Republicans) while in school, and gave the commencement address (the first student to do so). She went to Yale Law, worked at the Yale Child Study Center, volunteered at a hospital and a legal services group, and participated in some research and political activity. She interned at a left-leaning law firm and volunteered for McGovern's campaign. She graduated. She did a year of postgrad work with the Yale Child Study center and published a paper. She served as staff attorney for the Children's Defense Fund group and as a consultant to the Carnegie Council on Children. She was for a time a member of the impeachement inquiry staff advising the House Committee on the Judiciary (during Watergate). She failed the DC bar and passed the Arkansas bar, then got married to Bill Clinton.

Did that cover it? I'm going to guess her work with the various children's defense orgs is what Clinton would call "making positive changes in people's lives." I'd still like some concrete examples, though, as most of what I covered amounts to "working with X organization" and "being a member of X group," you know?

Static Ping said...

Upon further reflection, I do have to wonder why Bill decided to marry Hillary. She's not especially attractive and she's not a nice person. My guess is it was a combination of two things. First, she was as politically ambitious as he was and power has its own attractiveness. Second, Bill almost certainly needed to get married and stay married to have a serious political career in Arkansas. Hillary apparently is so desperate for power that she was completely unwilling to divorce him not matter what he did, which left him free to sleep with whomever he wanted. This secondary motivation is very reminiscent of the Hephaestus/Aphrodite marriage in Greek mythology: the gorgeous goddess of love married the ugliest god in the pantheon because he was typically too busy working to notice that she was sleeping with half of Greece.

Static Ping said...

How many people did Bush as President get killed, compared to Clinton as SOS?

I dunno. How do we count the deaths as a result of 9/11? If Bill takes out Osama bin Laden when he had a chance, is there even a Second Gulf War?

Anonymous said...

Thought experiment: Bill Clinton's family life is a lot more stable, and his choices in life greater as a result.

Clinton's ambitions don't move towards activist 60's politics, but are rather centrist Democrat/fiscally mildly socially conservative, due to protecting and having been enriched by the opportunities he's had (father worked and paid for his college expenses)

His healthy libido finds its match in one woman, after a more normal run in his 20's (3-7 women with courtship and normal dating rituals).

Hillary doesn't get a 2nd look.

The Patriarchy continues!

bagoh20 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
bagoh20 said...

"How many people did Bush as President get killed, compared to Clinton as SOS?"

"as President" is the operative word. Before that, I think it was zero - same with Trump.

Bush Derangement Syndrome is incurable. What ticket is Bush running on this time. He's seems to be running continuously.

eric said...

This appears to be the tactic for this convention. Humanize Hillary.

Humanize Hillary 2016!

Captain Drano said...

Blogger Unknown said...
"Hillary Clinton accomplished far more even before marrying Bill Clinton than most women her age, Althouse included. See her Wiki page, it only took me a few seconds to google it. So quit asking (Tim and Birkel) what her accomplishments were as if she had none."

How chivalrous of you. And deceptive.

-Took her an extra year (due to a man, and her white privilege to pay for) an "extra year" of law school.
-then despie wiki headline of "Post Graduate Studies" she did a lousy year at a child study center--again, to be with a man.
-now we're up to 1974. She then moves to Arkansas, gets prof job*
-Wiki says "they bought a house" in 1975. Not what Bill said.
-For 20 yrs, 1981-2001, she was a privileged First Lady in some capacity. Cushy.

* And Prof. Althouse's best point is any YLS alum would know how to get a Law Prof job. In the two years she blew waiting on a man (and in Connecticut), how many AALS hallway recruiting events did she attend? Couple that with her Chicago (not to mention her father's) connections, and clearly it's all spin.

damikesc said...

Yes, she has accomplished more than the average woman or man.

She has also fucked up more royally than almost any other man or woman in history. Definitely far more than the average man or woman, whose capacity to fuck up and still keep jobs is less infinite.

How many people did Bush as President get killed, compared to Clinton as SOS?

Well, the refugee "crisis" she caused has certainly led to a lot of deaths in Europe recently...

Big Mike said...

"Yes, the flag is only associated with the little hate nuggets. It's something to be sneered at along with Trump. Here comes the flag again, get ready to hate."

Note for the Dumbocrats. Orwell's 1984 was intended as a warning, not a "how to" guide. Your "two minutes of hate" has been noticed and makes you an object of disgust. Sort of like a turd floating in a swimming pool.

And associating your country's flag with two minutes of hate -- even Orwell never thought of that one.

bagoh20 said...

Hillary cleary accomplished much more than I did at that young age, and yet I still don't need to commit a felony or lie to millions to get through my day, and I certainly didn't require being internationally humiliated by a spouse to advance my career. She does know how to sacrifice for what she wants.

Static Ping said...

I'm not grasping why I should care about Hillary's early accomplishments. When it came to voting, I didn't care about Bill Clinton's early accomplishments, or W.'s early accomplishments, or Reagan's early accomplishments. There is a reason why the phrase "peaked in high school" exists. Also, there is a reason why the phrase "What have you done for me lately?" exists. When I look at Hillary's achievements that are relevant to her White House run, they all came about because of her husband and/or were failures. She literally has nothing to run on. It shows the sad state of our country that she is taken seriously.

It is also odd to hear Hillary's accomplishments compared to "most women her age." It's basically saying, "She was really good, for a girl."

Captain Drano said...

Ha! Also didn't realize Bill was already on the faculty at Arkansas before she was hired.
More riding on a man's coattails.
And more often than not, law schools will "find" a position for a profs partner. I wonder what she taught, how many classes a semester.

Unknown, you are just one of the thousands of vile drops of used douche leaking from her....whatever.

Patrick Henry was right! said...

No thinking person is going to vote for her now.

She was right.

Patrick Henry was right! said...

Why would she go and teach in Arkansas if not to be with him?

She failed the D.C. bar exam but passed the Arkansas bar exam.

On November 3, the District of Columbia Bar Association notified Hillary that she had failed the bar exam. For the first time in her life, she had flamed out — spectacularly, given the expectations of others for her, and even more so on her own. Of 817 applicants, 551 of her peers had passed, most from law schools less prestigious than Yale. She kept this news hidden for the next thirty years. She never took the exam again, despite many opportunities. Her closest friends and associates were flabbergasted when she made the revelation in a single throwaway line in Living History.

Those who knew her best speculated that she must have felt deep shame at her failure, and that her self-confidence — always so visible a part of her exterior — was shattered by the experience (though many first-rate lawyers, even Yale Law graduates, had flunked the bar on their first try).

This.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Our entitled, haggard queen has certainly excelled in lies and corruption. As Bill Murray would say:

"She got that going for her, which is nice"

Patrick Henry was right! said...

Blogger Unknown said...
Bagoh20,

How many people did Bush as President get killed, compared to Clinton as SOS?

7/27/16, 9:53 AM

To the troll, the difference is that the people who were killed in the Iraq War were killed in the name of freedom and ending oppression (as well as protecting America). Hillary's victims are in service to losing Iraq, Libya and creating ISIS.

Will said...

"She needed a patron with personality that people would vote for. I needed an Enabler with a vindictive streak. It was a fairy tale..

After Hillary flunked the bar in DC I knew I could con her if I turned on the charm and got her down on my turf..

Hillary immediately grasped our system of relative justice in Arkansas. If you had the right relatives then justice be damned. It has served us well ever since..

Now, I better wrap up as I'm meeting the Energizer later for a nightcap. I'll pick up my $300k speech fee backstage"

hombre said...

Bill enabled Hillary to become a political grifter. She enabled him to become a sexual predator.

A union truly made in heaven.

Francisco D said...

Two of Hillary's early (Pre-Mrs. Clinton) accomplishments are:

(1) Failing the Washington DC bar exam and;

(2) Getting kicked off the Watergate Committee by fellow democrats for lying and unethical behavior.

Quite an impressive resume to start. Let's not talk about her "great successes" after marrying Bill. There are so many that we have probably lost track.

Voting for Hillary is voting for a greedy criminal sociopath.

Brando said...

"Brando, I'm not into fluffing up Clinton's credentials, however I'm also not into negating them as is so obviously being done on these threads every time her name comes up. Sometimes the hate of Clinton just becomes all consuming, makes people dumb."

I don't think anyone's negating the accomplishments she actually has--graduating from a top law school and getting onto the Watergate staff. But when the standard theme of the Clintonites has been how "massively hilariously qualified" she is--as though she had better experience than anyone to take the job, including George Bush Sr., LBJ, and Thomas Jefferson combined--we can be a bit pickier. Clearly, she held some impressive positions--Senator and Secretary of State--but in terms of her record at those jobs, I don't see much to be proud of (and certainly even less from the standpoint of the leftists who are extolling her experience).

The big knock on Obama when she ran against him was how inexperienced he was, and the knock on Trump is how he's even less experienced in government and politics. Fair enough--both charges are true. But her record is nothing to be proud of either.

pm317 said...

I will give her credit for thinking she could make BC president and she did. I will also give her credit for thinking no one would vote for her for president then because she was a woman.

walter said...

I don't get people being somehow surprised or disappointed that Bill didn't get up there and do a detailed mea culpa. Are you out of your minds?
But look what he did cop to...if you believe it at least in terms of Bill putting the best spin on things.. The excerpt Ann pulled is all you need to see how little love had to do with it. As if HIS political career didn't require a "wife" (perhaps a child) willing to accept/defend his bullshit.

hombre said...

Speaking of enabling, here's a quiz for the troll called "Unknown":

True or false. The Hillary/Obama foreign policy was a major factor in:

Middle East chaos?
The rise of ISIS?
The current refugee crisis?
The rise of Vlad Putin to new heights in world leadership?
The death of Ambassador Stevens?

True or false:
The fees for Hillary's and Bill's speeches are not related to the content?
The contributions to the Clinton Foundation by Saudi, Russian uranium folks, etc., have nothing to do with charity?
Hillary and Bill's fortune has nothing to do with actual, legitimate work?

Finally, breaching the public trust by political grifting is far different than hustling in the private sector?

Spewing red herrings or psychological projecting will result in a fail.

pm317 said...

I think Althouse is analyzing 'no one would vote for me' with hindsight knowledge. When Hillary actually said it, I don't think even she was aware of the lack of charisma, and this and that. The best motive we can ascribe to that statement is that women didn't run and win votes at that time and Hillary was speaking to that rather than some self awareness that we as outsiders see today.

pm317 said...

Behind every great man there was a woman. But for a woman, we need her to do it all by herself, no help nothing bootstrap from zero. Ridiculous. She is not any less qualified than the last two presidents we have had. Let us at least break the ice for the next generation.

pm317 said...

A married man is seen as an island unto himself but a married woman, of course she is. It an individual in her own right, she is an appendage, a wife first. Ridiculous.

walter said...

"She is not any less qualified than the last two presidents we have had. Let us at least break the ice for the next generation."

Wow..yes..just ignore all we know about her. For the sake of VAGINA!

pm317 said...

* she is seen as not an individual in her own right. With Hillary, of course she is not even a human, a woman,...

pm317 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
walter said...

And if you really want to move the idea of leadership by women, good God..she is not a worthy or helpful choice.

pm317 said...

People ignored everything they know about Obama, or Bush, why start a new trend?

pm317 said...

And why believe the caricature created by the media?

damikesc said...

She is not any less qualified than the last two presidents we have had.

Bush was a successful governor of a large state for 8 years.

He was infinitely more qualified in 2000 than Hillary is now.

* she is seen as not an individual in her own right. With Hillary, of course she is not even a human, a woman,...

Without Hillary, Bill would've been a successful politician.

Without Bill, Hillary would've been...what?

hombre said...

Unknown (the Clinton dupe one): "Sometimes the hate of Clinton just becomes all consuming, makes people dumb."

Hate of Clinton? Why not sexism like Obama and racism? This is just projection by someone afflicted with BDS.

It's not about hate. It's about competence. It's about honesty. It's about integrity.

It's not about Trump either. Trump is just an antibiotic to cure the grifters and sellouts like HillBilly, McConnell, Reid, Pelosi, etc. If he gives us indigestion in the process, so what? The alternative to this antibiotic is blindness followed by insanity.

Bill said...

The Defrosting of Sister Frigidaire

Brando said...

"I will give her credit for thinking she could make BC president and she did. I will also give her credit for thinking no one would vote for her for president then because she was a woman."

First of all, she didn't say "I couldn't get elected president" back then, she said she couldn't "run for office" (which Bill had suggested according to this story) because no one would vote for her. We had long seen women elected to high offices, if not the presidency. She acknowledged her lack of politician skills, and that's to her credit. She wasn't so delusional as to think she could pull it off. Since then, though, she let her sycophant advisers talk her into running, starting in 2000. Her bungling has demonstrated that her earlier judgment was the correct one.

Second, you say "she made BC president". I realize a lot of people give her credit for Bill's success, and she has certainly been loyal to him and vicious towards any threat to his power. But how exactly has she helped him in the way that a quiet, uninvolved wife would not have? I'm not seeing any case where she made him more electable, or kept him focused. If anything, her unwillingness to make him face consequences for his dumb behavior made him more self destructive.

walter said...

PM.. please tell me your posts sare tongue in cheek. Please.

Brando said...

"She is not any less qualified than the last two presidents we have had."

Bush by 2000 had demonstrated executive ability, governing the second-largest state for two terms with no scandals to speak of and a successful period of growth. While Obama was inexperienced, he did have a political career at the state and national level that he earned on his own--he didn't get elected solely because his wife was president. And he has proven to be the best campaigner the Dems have had in generations.

Hillary, whatever her actual skills and abilities, has proved a poor politician and incompetent at the jobs she was handed (no matter how impressive the job titles were). That would be bad enough, but her corruption makes it even worse.

walter said...

Again..people taking Bill's word on what she said. Has he proffered this version of history all along? I see him with that trademark half open mouth and my BS meter pegs.

walter said...

The only folks who should believe him..especially in THIS setting..are those too young to remember he was impeached and lost his license in part over perjury.

walter said...

Then you have "believe every accusation"/Bimbo eruption manager Hil..putting serial vagina abuser up there..all for the advancement of VAGINA.
It's truly perverse.

BarrySanders20 said...

I was waiting for that moment when Bill would look into the camera and wag his finger and say

"I did not have sex with that woman . . . Hillary Clinton."

jg said...

None of my smart liberal friends are Hillary Clinton admirers. None. Some like Michelle Obama, most like Bill Clinton, and a few even like Elizabeth Warren. And of course they like potus Obama. There are a few women excited in the abstract for a woman president. Nobody is excited for Hillary. Wikileaks showed us how the DNC has to pay people to rep her online. Pathetic.

walter said...

Change Maker

Brando said...

"None of my smart liberal friends are Hillary Clinton admirers. None. Some like Michelle Obama, most like Bill Clinton, and a few even like Elizabeth Warren. And of course they like potus Obama. There are a few women excited in the abstract for a woman president. Nobody is excited for Hillary."

That's what the polls seem to say. A remarkable lack of excitement for Hillary.

Of the people I know who are voting Hillary, I'd say less than 10% really like her or Bill. The rest are just standard Democrats, who would pull the D lever no matter what, and people who might even have voted Republican this year just to stop the Clintons. If she wins, it'll be quite the feat.

Just_Mike_S said...

"...I keep hearing all this talk about how hard she's worked over her whole life to make things better for women and children (and America & the world), but what has she actually accomplished? Is it too much to ask for a few concrete examples?!"

Results are irrelevant to progressives. Mere intent (ironically) is the currency. If the proper intent is expressed, the points are automatically awarded. To ask for empirical data is racist/sexist/mysoginyst/homophobic etc etc.

hombre said...

1:04: "Results are irrelevant to progressives. Mere intent (ironically) is the currency."

Actually, it's the expression of intent that matters. Democrats do not expect sincerity of intent from their pols.

walter said...

Right. If folks truly wanted decisive action to fight CAGW!, they'd be on the streets across the country. Instead, just voice support...or yer "anti-science!"

BrianE said...

Do law professors get paid by the word?

Very entertaining and seems plausible.

The fact remains she is only a candidate for President of the United States because she married Bill Clinton. That still seems to be her signature political achievement.

elcee said...

Basil:
"the difference is that the people who were killed in the Iraq War were killed in the name of freedom and ending oppression (as well as protecting America)"

The law and policy, fact basis of Operation Iraqi Freedom is explained here. On the law and facts, Bush's decision for OIF was correct.

Meanwhile, Clinton 'evolved' about her 2002 Senate vote by blatantly misrepresenting the AUMF instruction and OIF's legal-factual basis: Explanation.

david7134 said...

FYI,
I had friends in the 90's with contacts in the Clinton White House. They told us that Hillary's favorite name for her husband was "dickhead". Apparently, Hillary presided over cabinet meetings and would get excessively upset over Bill interjecting his opinion and start yelling dickhead at him in front over our government elite.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Later, he buys a house and she — liking the house?! — accepts his offer of marriage,

Clearly the right message to give following a period of extended economic decline kicked off by a mortgage crisis.

If you listen carefully, you can hear the consummate asshole in them coming out of every word they utter.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

She had a lot but she lacked something crucial, political charisma.

She's a self-described misanthrope who has no business, based on that admission alone, of entering any field in which people's lives matter.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

The entire narrative Bill Clinton laid out is almost certainly a lie- it simply doesn't pass the smell test on any level. I don't think she ever, not once, had any personal political ambitions until her husband had been elected to the presidency.

As Freud might say, politician envy.

Any man who has anything immediately becomes the possessor of an object of her desire.

Ctmom4 said...

@Blogger Unknown said...
Hillary Clinton accomplished far more even before marrying Bill Clinton than most women her age, Althouse included. See her Wiki page, it only took me a few seconds to google it. So quit asking (Tim and Birkel) what her accomplishments were as if she had none.

7/27/16, 8:45 AM

I just looked at her Wiki page. It mentions she was a congressional legal council. That was probably the Watergate committee, from which she was fired for unethical behavior. Then Arkansas, where she married Bill. All the Arkansas jobs were due to being married to Bill. What are you seeing?

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Ann Althouse said...
Ever see that movie "Housesitter." Steve Martin is an architect and he designs and builds a whole house and then suddenly reveals it to Dana Delany along with a marriage proposal? She's pretty much horrified and says know.
That's a really enjoyable movie.
7/27/16, 9:13 AM

That movie was shot in Concord MA, and the house was built in the field of a farmer/machine operator named Wally M-. I was the laborer for the contractor who built the house, Tom T-. One afternoon before the inside was finished, Frank Oz and Steve Martin showed up to go over interior scenes and shots. I was talking with Tom and Wally, and when Wally learned that Steve Martin was in the house, he went over to meet him. A few minutes later, Wally comes back shaking his head, and tells us that Steve didn't want to meet him, and wouldn't even walk over to say hi and shake his hand. There are more stories of assholey Movie People behavior I could share. You couldn't make me watch that movie, not even to see the house we built.

SukieTawdry said...

The reason she went to Arkansas is because she bombed out in Washington. She failed to pass the bar and she was let go from the Watergate committee without a recommendation. The reason she went to Arkansas is because she needed to hitch her stalled wagon to Bill's rising star. The decision started to pay dividends fairly soon. When Bill was elected attorney general, she was hired by the Rose Law Firm. When Bill was elected governor, she was made partner. There were other perks along the way: seats on corporate boards, the lucrative cattle futures scheme. But it wasn't until 1992 that her Plan B really began to pay off.


The simple fact is, if she had not married Bill Clinton, she would not be accepting her party's nomination for president tomorrow night.

Annie said...

unknown, Bush went to congress to get permission to go into Iraq. You know, the congress Hillary was a part of. Hillary, who voted in favor of going into Iraq. Hillary, who was just as responsible for it, as Bush.

Now let's count the pile of bodies after she helped destabilize the ME, and unleashed the foot soldiers of her buddies, the Muslim brotherhood, ISIS, in it's quest to reestablish the caliphate. The women of the ME are now very much worse off, as are European women.

Zach said...

Bill is sort of gliding past the glaring likelihood that Hillary was a spousal hire.

The way it works is: you want to hire a candidate who is married to someone they met in grad school. So you extend an offer to the spouse and consider that part of the acquisition cost. Tellingly, this is something you have to negotiate at the initial hiring, because departments would rather have an open competition for the second spot.

It's not exclusively a deal where the department hires the wife to get the husband -- I know an (excellent) theorist who was hired because the department wanted his (even more excellent) wife. But it's common enough that some women get sensitive about it. They think it sets up a department in which the women aren't as valued as the men, where women get pushed toward thankless jobs like serving on committees, etc.

Regarding "nobody would vote for me," Bill is basically right. Politics in New York is a slippery pole. A competitive House district might take decades to open up. An early 20s graduate of Yale Law School is nothing special -- she'd be looking at a Big Law job in a firm with hundreds of lawyers to start. In contrast, Bill graduated Law School in '73, ran for the House in '74 (and lost narrowly), was elected Attorney General in '76, and was elected Governor in '78. Granted he has a lot of political skills, but Arkansas was an objectively better place to launch a political career.

Andy said...

So does "Nobody would ever vote for me" translate to "Nobody would ever love me"