« Previous | Main | Next »

Bill Clinton: No 'Whining' from Hillary

Share

April 17, 2008 5:19 PM

ABC News' Sarah Amos Reports: Former President Bill Clinton says he didn't see his wife "whining" when she's taken some tough political shots on the presidential campaign trail.

"When I watched that debate last night, I got kinda tickled," the former President said at an American Legion Hall event in St. Mary's, Pennsylvania, "After the [debate], her opponents', oh, the people working were saying, 'Oh this is so negative, why are they doing this.' Well they've been beatin' up on her for 15 months. I didn't hear her whining when he said she was untruthful in Iowa or called her the senator from Punjab."

"And, you know, they said some pretty rough things about me, too. But you know, this is a contact sport. If you don't want to play, keep your uniform off," Clinton told a loudly cheering crowd.

Watch the VIDEO HERE.

Clinton asserted the focus on the campaign has largely been on the issues.

"The truth is," Clinton said, "this has been basically positive campaign on the issues, and on the records and on the experience. And the real differences should be on the issues."

Clinton was in high spirits on Thursday morning, the day after Sens. Clinton and Obama met for the 22nd time on a debate stage.

"I don't know if you saw that debate last night, but I did, and I thought she was great. She was great because she showed the strength and leadership and knowledge of the issues that is very important to the next president," Clinton effused to his first crowd of the day in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Obama, meanwhile, tried to brush off any criticism that his debate performance was below par.

During a town hall in Raleigh, Obama said his Democratic nomination rival "looked in her element" in Philadelphia.

"She was taking every opportunity to get a dig in there, that's her right to kind of twist the knife a little bit," Obama said.

"That's how our politics has been taught to be played. That's the lesson that she learned when the Republicans were doing that same thing to her back in the 1990s, so I understand it, and when you're running for the presidency then you've got to expect it."

Obama then paused, brushed both his shoulders, then bent down and brushed off his knee to thunderous applause from the audience.

"That's what you got to do," Obama laughed, "That is also precisely why I'm running for president to change that kind of politics."

The Illinois senator called the first half of the debate "tit for tat silliness", quickly adding, "It took us 45 min before we even started talking about a single issue that matters to the American people . . . 45 minutes before we heard about healthcare, 45 minutes before we heard about Iraq, 45 minutes before we heard about jobs, 45 minutes before we heard about gas prices."

Obama said that the debate was a preview of how the Republicans will attack him if he were the nominee.

"That was the roll out of the Republican's campaign against me in November. It happened just a little early," Obama said.

ABC News' Sunlen Miller contributed to this report.

April 17, 2008 in Bush, George W., Hunter, Duncan, Kucinich, Dennis, Tancredo, Tom, Thompson, Fred | Permalink | User Comments (756)

User Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Bill Clinton is disgusting

Posted by: willie | Apr 17, 2008 5:29:34 PM

Bill Clinton is a sc#m bag.

Posted by: jenny | Apr 17, 2008 5:31:09 PM

Hillabeans doesn't need to whine! Bubba does it for her!

Well, next week he can go back to making his $500,000 speeches! Aren't all these Clintonistas amazed at what they're getting for "free"?

Obama 2008 -- Yes, WE CAN!!!

Posted by: Jackt51 -- Vietnam Vet and Proud Liberal | Apr 17, 2008 5:31:14 PM

ABC's debate was disgusting I felt like i had to take a shower after watching it

Posted by: Jeremie | Apr 17, 2008 5:32:02 PM

WAY TO GO SENATOR CLINTON!!! WAY TO GO ABC!! FAIR AND BALANCED COVERAGE!!!

I have enlclosed the link to the Rollingstone article discussed in last night's debate: (He lied and Is he above the fact checking you put Senator Clinton through!)

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/sto ry/13390609/campaign_08_the_radical_root s_of_barack_obama/print

CLINTON 08 - School is in session!!!!!!

Posted by: Chas | Apr 17, 2008 5:32:24 PM

Bill Clinton raped me.

Posted by: taylor | Apr 17, 2008 5:32:26 PM

What is Bill Clinton smoking? Hillary Clinton was whining that the press was so easy on Obama at the last debate and that she always gets the first question. She literally broke into tears in New Hampshire and has played the victim every chance she gets. Bill really needs to shut up.

Posted by: Paul | Apr 17, 2008 5:32:30 PM

Bill is 100% right. Hillary was wonderful last night and Obama is finally getting vetted. I hope it's not too late - we need a dem nominee that can WIN finally and Hillary is our gal!

Clinton is the only dem to win in the past 30 years - they KNOW how to win.

Posted by: rcs1978 | Apr 17, 2008 5:32:41 PM

In the Philadelphia debate, both Hillary and Obama regurgitated their familiar mantra that they would veto the falsely maligned Bush taxcuts which resuscitated the U.S. economy from the inherited Clinton recession; but, which Hillary and Obama say favor only the rich. That tired old populist ploy of "soak the rich". However , a brief review of IRS statistics related to post-Bush tax cut revenues reveals exactly the opposite. Specifically, the share of individual income taxes paid by the bottom 40% of American taxpayers, as a result of expanded child tax credits and earner income tax credits, was reduced from 0% to a -4%; and, took another ten million low income Americans completely off of the tax roles. That is, a very significant four(4) % decrease. On the other end of the scale, the tax burden on the top 20% of income earners, the so-called rich, increased to a full 85% of the total tax burden. For examples on the lower end of the scale, a Single Individual making 30K paid $8400 in taxes under Clinton; under Bush $4500. A married couple making 60K: under Clinton $16,800, under Bush $9000. So Hillary/Obamaspeak, an economic strategy that left our Nation in a RECESSION on the Clinton's departure from the White House, would damage the poor more then any other group. One can summarize this quite simply by noting that IF Hillary and Obama's Marxist philosophies of soaking the rich were valid, Communist societies throughout the world would be exorbitantly wealthy, in lieu of economic basket cases a' la Castro's Cuba. The same can be said of their forced plan for Socialized Medicine. A program which is failing miserably in such Nations as Canada and the United Kingdom. Canada, as just one example, is now experiencing a dramatic shortfall in physicians. Greg Neubeck


Posted by: Greg Neubeck | Apr 17, 2008 5:33:20 PM

You fools who put down the clintons are only doing yourselves in. What goes around comes around. Your words are sending some of us life long dems over to mccain if obama gets the nom.

Posted by: al | Apr 17, 2008 5:33:42 PM

If Clinton knows how to win then please explain how the Dems lost the House, Senate and several state governerships/assemblies in 1994. It was the greatest victory of the Republican Party in almost a century. Bill Clinton only knows what to do what is best for him, not the Democratic Party - sounds just like his wife.

Posted by: Paul | Apr 17, 2008 5:35:21 PM

I'm not sure how President Clinton is saying Hillary didn't whine...during a previous debate she made a remark that she thought she was "getting all the questions first". To date she's made plenty of other comments about how she's treated unfairly by the media and by critics.

Posted by: NK | Apr 17, 2008 5:35:41 PM

What a shameless couple, would say or do anything towin an election but not this time. They have no dignity left, the little they have of their reputations have been tarnished for life.

Posted by: bask | Apr 17, 2008 5:36:12 PM

Wonder how Bill would have felt if the two dummies asked hillary similar questions, like Monica, Whitewater, firings of white house staff, his pardoning of two weather underground bombers, and the criminal who gave all the money to his campaign, or maybe the stolen furniture and fixtures they took from the white house.

Posted by: roger | Apr 17, 2008 5:36:15 PM

Slick's comments were pretty much an admission that she had been whining in the past. Somebody please put Bill back in his trunk.

Posted by: TexasRick | Apr 17, 2008 5:36:31 PM

whatever!
i guess he didnt think she did so GREAT in the other 19-20 debates...

Posted by: rob | Apr 17, 2008 5:36:45 PM

Want she the one whining about getting the first question in the last debate. what a blow hard!!!! Eveytime Ilisten to on the the Clintons talk i throw up in my mouth!!

Posted by: James | Apr 17, 2008 5:37:21 PM

I hate this kind of stuff. Hillary whines during one of the last debates because of questions being asked to her first, and now Obama is chastised by these two clowns for almost 40 min.. ONE OF WHICH WORKED FOR THE CLINTONS.. and he isn't allowed to?

Posted by: Christina | Apr 17, 2008 5:38:01 PM

Both Bill and Obama are trying to get their spin on things. The whole debate was a circle jerk. Stephanopolous moderating, Hillary and Obama taking their little jabs while trying be polite. And Obama saying he is trying to change the way politics in this country - all the while trying to hide his Chicago-style down and dirty shenanigans. Let's get a real candidate with integrity that we can be proud of.

Posted by: DMH | Apr 17, 2008 5:38:07 PM

Maybe she didn't whine last night but she knew she bold faced lied about Bosnia and admitted it..lol..she did top it off with an excuse though.. she needed to get more sleep..lol What's going to happen at 3am if she can't even think at 10 in the morning?..lmao.
Otherwhys Hillary whines all the time that she is treated the way she is because she is a woman or she's not black or when the media calls her on things she is being abused. I supported Bill as president but he needs to let her fight her own battles. Is this what is going to hasppen if she becomes president?

Posted by: Lene | Apr 17, 2008 5:39:13 PM

Post a comment