NPR: Former President Clinton Continues to Generate Heat

Former President Clinton Continues to Generate Heat

If Sen. Hillary Clinton has to run as her party's nominee in the fall, her husband just made it a little more difficult for her to win in the key state of New Hampshire. (Not to mention if she ever has to run in a Democratic primary there again.)

It's well known that New Hampshire residents take their "first primary in the nation" status pretty seriously. They believe it's the one time that a small state like New Hampshire gets a chance to be a player on the national political stage. (And the state has played no small role in rescuing the political chances of both Clintons.) So it seems they weren't too happy when Monday former President Bill Clinton, as the Manchester Union-Leader put it, "threw New Hampshire and our Democratic Secretary of State Bill Gardner under the proverbial bus."

Clinton was trying to make another argument Monday in Indiana for allowing Michigan and Florida delegates to be seated at the Democratic National Convention in August. "We let New Hampshire go out of turn," said Clinton. "They had a Democratic secretary of state. The Florida voters are totally innocent. They asked to vote on time."

"Never mind the historical record, which shows that Florida and Michigan moved up their primaries first, prompting New Hampshire to respond," said the conservative Union-Leader in an editorial. "If they stand in the way of the Clintons' march through history, the facts be damned. And, if they stand in the way of the Clintons' march through history, their friends be damned, too."

Meanwhile, President Clinton is trying a new argument about the pledged delegates - delegates from caucuses aren't as important as the ones from primaries. ABC News reports that Thursday, while speaking to his wife's Texas supporters, Clinton downplayed the importance of caucuses. (Don't tell Iowa!) "Right now, among all the primary states, believe it or not, Hillary's only 16 votes behind in pledged delegates," said Clinton, "and she's gonna wind up with the lead in the popular vote in the primary states. She's gonna wind up with the lead in the delegates [from primary states]. It's the caucuses that have been killing us."

"Bill Clinton's decision to flatly predict that his wife will finish ahead of Obama in the pledged delegates and popular vote which come strictly from primary states comes as his wife's advisers concede that the former first lady will not be able to catch Obama in the total number of pledged delegates," adds ABC.

8:56 AM ET | 03-28-2008 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

it's funny how the clintons continue to adjust the rules to make it look like hillary has a chance at winning this thing. Its a shame really cause Bill clinton overall was a very good president, but when he makes foolish comments like this it just makes me lose more and more respect for him.

Sent by Jay from MN | 9:16 AM ET | 03-28-2008

The primaries that have been killing "US?" You mean, "her," right, Bill?

Sent by I G | 9:17 AM ET | 03-28-2008

I can only hope that Obama supporters get out the vote and crush Clinton in both the popular vote and the delegate count (after she has a minor win in PA). The Clintons need to retire and disappear from politics.

Sent by Ron | 9:29 AM ET | 03-28-2008

Hmmmmmm, and I bet Bill's next argument will be that pledged delegates who support Obama are not as important as pledged delegates who support Clinton. I guess that will be next week's spin from their campaign.

Of course, as an Iowan, I wonder why the Clintons threw everything, including the kitchen sink, into winning our unimportant delegates.

Sent by Phil R | 9:32 AM ET | 03-28-2008

Oy! What next??? They need to be stopped!!the Clinton's are looking worse and worse each day.

Sent by jen | 9:55 AM ET | 03-28-2008

Some days I wonder if it would just be better to have a "Super Tuesday" where all 50 states held their primary/caucus events on the same day.

Sent by Page | 10:01 AM ET | 03-28-2008

The Clinton campaign has been entirely infected with foot-in-mouth disease. The desperation is obvious and ugly. Hopefully it won't leave a lasting stain on this couple's legacy if/when they lose the nomination.

Sent by Sean | 10:31 AM ET | 03-28-2008

The only problem wiht a national primary, in my opinon is that it doesn't give enough people th see the candidate before voting. Had there already been a national primary we would not have had the oppurtunity to see this version of Hillary and a lot more people would have voted for her based on the clinton presidency which would have had a lot more people wrongly voting her. It's washington politics as usual for the Clintons but I think we are ready for something different. Especially at a time when everything is so important and so many lives are at stake. From our soldiers fighting however bravely still unneccesarily in Iraq to the lively hoods of so many mortgagers who were victimized by vastly over zealous and greedy mortgage companies who have in a lot of cases since gone out of business and sold those debts to other companies who still need to collect on them. Straight talking Mccain says the the Government can't bail out the American people but he is willng to contiue to pour billions of our hard earned tax dollars into Iraq to Bail out there Government. That doesn't make any sense to me. Are the democrats truly going to let Hillary Clinton cause so much damage that we allow a president who is openly more supportive of Iraq who now has absolutely nothing to offer us than he is of suffering Americans?

Sent by J.A. WILSON | 10:45 AM ET | 03-28-2008

Bill will probably soon remind us we are forgetting the 500 bonus delegates awarded to candidates married to unfaithful spouses.

Sent by TJ | 10:50 AM ET | 03-28-2008

the reason that Clinton is doing so well in the primaries and not the caucuses is because of the republican vote to keep the struggle in the democratic party going. Republicans are showing up to vote for the primaries to do their part to destabilize the party, but the closed caucuses show the way the party is voting without outside interference.

Sent by RB | 11:02 AM ET | 03-28-2008

The Clinton campaign's "Insult 40 States" strategy is back in action. No one matters except Ohio and Texas. Oh, and Florida and Michigan, but only because she can't win without them.

Sent by Sallie | 11:22 AM ET | 03-28-2008

We are witnessing the dismantling of Democracy through manipulations and corruptions of how WE as a nation have historically chosen our president.

Bill Clinton proposes new definitions for the process by which we choose our president, where votes can be bought and sold (through threats in letters to Speaker Pelosi), manipulations and distortions of reality shift the standards by which we measure the front runner ( big states matter more than small states, primaries are more important than caucuses), corruption of the rules that protect the process (sue the culinary workers of Nevada to deny them from participating in the voting process and claim that Michigan and Florida is really about protecting the "right to vote" while ignoring the rules that all agreed to that were violated in the process), manipulate and distort what constitutes an ???election??? ( count Florida and Michigan; ignore that Obama name was omitted in one state, and that he never competed nor campaigned in either state yet claim the outcome of such a process is somehow ???fair??? and ???measurable??? of the people???s will), corrupt the process by which a president is chosen ( by claiming the national will of the people can be over-ridden by the supers and even the pledged delegates), distort and manipulate the truth while corrupting the process.

Yes. We are witnessing the dismantling of democracy.

Sent by Hope | 11:38 AM ET | 03-28-2008

It's ironic that Bill Clinton should dismiss the caucus process now, yet he benefitted in caucus states during his runs for the presidency. If the caucus is a faulty, undemocratic process whereby the delegates don't count, does that suggest he shouldn't have been the dem nominee in '92 & '96? That folks continue to support the Clintons, is astonishing to me. But then again, the good people of the United States elected Bush Jr. Twice.

Sent by sem | 11:41 AM ET | 03-28-2008

You can spin anything to make a person look bad. And everything said by Hillary and Bill Clinton seems to receive this treatment. The truly amazing thing is even with the Obama slant of the press, this race is still a virtual tie. Imagine how far ahead Hillary Clinton would be with an objective press.

Sent by Susan | 12:02 PM ET | 03-28-2008

And what if he's right? What if Clinton gets the popular vote in primary states? And what if they're more important? Who cares? Does he really think that the DNC is going to just say that the caucases don't count? It just doesn't make any sense. When this is all over, will someone with an inside track write a book about the Clintons' various strategies?

Sent by Drew | 12:11 PM ET | 03-28-2008

To Susan:
The Clintons look bad all on their own. I would argue that it's the media's "spin" that's kept them in the race this long.

Sent by sem | 12:33 PM ET | 03-28-2008

Page, you really want a primary/caucus on the same day in every state? Are you mad? Apparently you do not live in Texas...it was nuts. And caucus's are built to be manipulated, so I can see the point Bill was trying to make, as I saw the ineptitude of caucuses firsthand in Texas.
The Obama camp's angle has been to win the caucus all along, and anyone who has been paying attention can easily see this strategy (but it's not their only one). The Clinton camp should know this, and has known this, but I don't know what good pointing this out to a rabid press will do. You can reason with the press, it just doesn't work. Or at least the Clintons haven't been able to. At this point, Obama could go on a drunken rampage, show up with a team of Hooter's girls, and crash his car into an old lady and the press would somehow turn it into a charity event.

Sent by apr | 1:07 PM ET | 03-28-2008

Such slapstick.
Democrats had best stay away from my fully functioning healthcare or there's gonna be trouble.

Sent by deek | 2:08 PM ET | 03-28-2008

Go Susan

Sent by rrf | 2:19 PM ET | 03-28-2008

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