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Revisionism In Record Time

April 22, 2008 12:25 PM

It's pretty straightforward.

On WHYY radio, former President Bill Clinton was asked about a Philadelphia official who took offense at his comparing Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, to Rev. Jesse Jackson, thinking it an attempt to marginalize Obama as "the black candidate."

Clinton was asked: "Do you think that was a mistake, and would you do that again?"

"No," he responded. "I think that they played the race card on me. And we now know, from memos from the campaign and everything, that they planned to do it along."

Today in Pittsburgh, Clinton was asked what he meant by saying the Obama campaign was playing the race card on him.

“When did I say that, and to whom did I say that?” Clinton asked, per ABC News' Sarah Amos.

“On WHYY radio yesterday," he was told by an NBC/National Journal reporter.

“No, no, no," Clinton said. "That’s not what I said. You always follow me around and play these little games, and I’m not going to play your games today. This is a day about election day. Go back and see what the question was, and what my answer was. You have mischaracterized it to get another cheap story to divert the American people from the real urgent issues before us, and I choose not to play your game today. Have a nice day.”

Huh?

That's exactly what he said.

"I said what I said," Clinton said. "You can go back and look at the interview and if you will be real honest you will also report what the question was and what the answer was.  But I'm not helping you."

- jpt

April 22, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (51)

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Is this not Excellent news for Hillary ?I guess it depends on how you define "IS" !

Posted by: BillWho? | Apr 22, 2008 1:39:41 PM

"I also know you're are not a Democrat."

Ah, you're wrong about THAT. If either of THESE frauds is the Democratic Party nominee, however, I'll be a McKinney/Nader voter.

Posted by: Belle Starr | Apr 22, 2008 1:37:30 PM

By the way calling anyone who questions Obama a racist won't work against Republicans.

They dont have Liberal white guilt.

In fact it will probably push white people away from voting for him in a general.

Posted by: s.b. | Apr 22, 2008 1:34:54 PM

"I also believe you don't have someone in Iraq and you don't care about those who do."

If you think Obama (OR Clinton) is going to be a savior from imperial militarism, you might have got on the wrong horse.

Most of the U.S. armed forces people in Iraq -- they're now, though, taking felons, the uneducated, any cannon fodder they can scare up -- were lured there by promises of "education" and the like. Then there are the "contractors", paid like pashas and controlled by no one -- about an equal number of mercenaries. Your guy Obama thinks contractors are fine -- check it out.

Posted by: Belle Starr | Apr 22, 2008 1:34:45 PM

Why do you people keep focusing on this.

How about Obama giving Hillary the finger the other day three times at exactly the same time in three seperate speeches that involved hip hop guestures.

No press coverage on that. That's ok, but if Bill Clinton states the obvious you're all over that.

Of course the obama camp playes the race card. They do it every time someone challenges him and it started the day after NH.

So what. Cover the campaign. What the candidates say is important, parsing what their surrogates say is minor stuff. Be a journalist for once.

Posted by: s.b. | Apr 22, 2008 1:33:43 PM

This is exactly why Mccain doesn't want to run ageist Obama. Everything anyone says in his camp will be turned into a racial statement.

Posted by: Tina D | Apr 22, 2008 1:32:42 PM

For me, the clincher with Obama is his relationship with Pastor Wright. I don't want someone who feels that comfortable with a pastor who spews such hate feeling comfortable in the Oval Office. That would make me feel very uncomfortable. America responsible for 9/11, America created AIDS to inflict on blacks and the poor, white racist American culture, Israel cause of all oppression in the Middle East.

Posted by: hopesprings52 | Apr 22, 2008 1:29:33 PM

How is Obama going to unify the country if he can't even attempt to unify the democratic party?
Clinton has said that she would definitely consider him as her running mate and I believe if she gets the nomination she will ask him, he on the other hand think that all of her supporters would just defect to him and doesn't feel the need to ask her to join the ticket if her were to get the nomination. This, to me, is very telling of how he will follow through with his promises.

Posted by: Andrea | Apr 22, 2008 1:28:51 PM

there was nothing wrong with what he said Jake.. there was nothing racial charged about it all.. please TRY to at least point that out.

Posted by: Alan | Apr 22, 2008 1:27:39 PM

Belle Starr, this is for you.

If your vote isn't covered in Diamonds or made of pure Gold you can keep it, it won't make a difference. Better still you can vote that Cyborg McCain, and help him spend $12b a month and waste the life of good Americans in Iraq. I can see you're a good America. I also believe you don't have someone in Iraq and you don't care about those who do.

Posted by: Oretega M | Apr 22, 2008 1:25:48 PM

Wow, when I first read this I was infuriated with Bill for diverting the attention back to this the day before the PA primary, but then I actually clicked the link that took me to the radio site and listened to the interview with Bill for myself. You "journalists" took a few lines from his answer and twisted it around. What President Clinton said was true - Obama has been playing the race card the entire campaign. How else do you explain 90% of African Americans voting for Obama, even though the Clintons have a proven record of fighting and working on behalf of civil rights their entire lives? Obama didn't go to the State of the Black Union in New Orleans (Hillary did) and also chose not to go to Memphis to honor the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination (which both Mccain and Hillary did). This shows the arrogance from him that has been getting more and more brazen as if to say, "I already have the black vote, no need to appeal to them anymore, they are undeniable behind me so why bother?"

Posted by: Andrea | Apr 22, 2008 1:25:03 PM

Will someone please tell me WHAT exactly that Bill said on the radio interview that was offensive? He was merely defending himself, and he is correct that Obama pulled the race card on him. He said nothing offensive in SC, he said nothing offensive now. What gives? Is this the type of overly sensitive political correctness that we have to attend too, if the people are ignorant enough to vote Obama into the whitehouse? Do you see how Obama is already dividing the country, that little benigh comments can be construed as racist? Trust me, Obama will DIVIDE this country, it is already happenning, and it is sad and disgusting.

Posted by: huh | Apr 22, 2008 1:23:17 PM

I mean really I think we are discovering that he can't help himself...

I think this guy is pathological...honestly. Everyone can say that is harsh...but I think he really is somewhat of a headcase. I am sure it is all tactical but if it isn't then he is kind of "coo coo"...
and that is scary to think this was the president I held up as high as I did a year ago...before half of us woke up to the fictional walls they had put up around ALL of those long lists of questions.

How could anyone still be believing this guy? or Hillary for that matter...you know it's like my parents telling stories of my childhood and unfortunately they have these self-created worlds...because it's easier.

Posted by: dl | Apr 22, 2008 1:22:02 PM

Let me get this straight: Bill "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" Clinton crafts his own reality??

Posted by: Howard B. | Apr 22, 2008 1:21:58 PM

hopespring52

"joined at the hip"?

You are reaching at ...well it's not even reachable. You mean like joined at the hip like Hillary and Penn and Bill during all this trade talk?

after the talk about Iran and using nuclear weaponry as an intimidation device against a country that does not have nuclear weapons...thus giving them more incentive and excuse to try and make it look like they need weapons to protect themselves...

I think your statements are the same old...take the voters eyes off the ball...

Look at the real issues...and don't create fictional scenarios "joined at the hip" ... you are either just angry and throwing out your own wishful thinking (at best) or you are being slimey and misleading...

we all are banking on the voters being smarter than that.

Posted by: dl | Apr 22, 2008 1:16:57 PM

Bottom line. The Clintons are low-class, lying, cheating, self-serving, manipulative opportunists.


They LOVED black people when they got their vote. Now they've turned against them to court the uneducated, bigoted, working class white vote.


They LOVED "moveon" when the group defended Bill Clinton. Hillary CHASED AFTER their endorsement, but when she lost it, she turned against them, too.


Of course, they HATED the Pittsburgh-Tribune Review, whose owner/publisher Richard Mellon, led the RNC charges against Bill Clinton while he was president, but now they LOVE Mellon, because they cut a deal with him to get his endorsement.


Disloyal. Dishonest. Disgusting!

Posted by: Mia | Apr 22, 2008 1:12:58 PM

It really would be incredibly laughable if it weren't so sleazy to try to make out that Bill Clinton is a racist or to even suggest it. Meanwhile on the other side, you have a guy who has a black separatist preacher who he calls his "spiritual mentor" and "his sounding board" who spews hate for America and the white race. Obama has been joined at the hip to this guy and his church for more than 20 years. Obama refers to the white grandmother who raised him as a "typical white person" with her discriminatory attitudes. And yet on election day in PA the press is badgering Bill Clinton!
Last minute hatchet job!!

Posted by: hopesprings52 | Apr 22, 2008 1:10:17 PM

Guess it depends on the meaning of "the." Maybe he was playing another race card, but he certainly was -- and is -- playing it.

Meanwhile, his wife -- the actual candidate (some folks tend to forget that at times), said more on her plans to "bombbombbomb, bombbomb Iran:


Scary, neocon kinda stuff!!!

Obama 2008 -- Yes, WE CAN!!!

Posted by: Jackt51 -- Vietnam Vet and Proud Liberal | Apr 22, 2008 1:02:17 PM

Bill's memory is bad, but he was right the first time: the Obama camp did play the race card. Jesse Jackson Jr. did it in New Hampshire claiming that Hillary didn't care about Katrina victims, and then in South Carolina the Obama campaign released memos saying the Clinton's were "racially insensitive."

It was despicable then, and it's still despicable. Obama knows the Clintons are not racist, and his hypocrisy in decrying gotcha politics when he it did to Bill and Hillary Clinton, Gerladine Ferraro and others is amazing.

What's sad is that you, Jake, and the rest of the Obama shills in media allow him to lie to the people and pretend he is the poor hapless victim. He lied in the debate on this point saying his campaign never pushed the Bosnia story when they surely did, and he lied when he said his handwriting wasn't on the gun questionnaire, when it surely was.

Still waiting for you or ABC to do an expose on Obama race card memos or his debate lies, but I won't hold my breath. I know you are probably on his campaign payroll.

Posted by: DJK | Apr 22, 2008 1:00:58 PM

I pray that people will focus on the issues and not on Bill's little game he is playing.

Wen need to get off this beligerent crusade of attack and intimidate before it destroys us... focus on Hillary's discussion of Iran...how this military offensive stance is killing us in ou reputation , with our standing with our allies, with support to our military, with our crumbling military, and our economy.

Look at hillary's stances...she is saying things to get elected but those don't sit with her stances in the last 10 days...

get off these side issues they are using to divert your attention.

Bill is no dummy ...this is all purposeful...

"depends on what your definition of "is" is."

Posted by: dl | Apr 22, 2008 12:59:23 PM

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