Last week, Bill Clinton went on Fox News for an interview with Chris Wallace. Wallace accused him, basically, of causing 9/11 through his inaction (a la ABC’s mockumentary, “Path to 9/11”). Clinton reacted, to say the least. Watch the pretty sparks fly (via ThinkProgress).
Clinton’s rebuttal reminded me of an essay in the New Yorker from a couple of weeks ago where Clinton suggested the Democratic Party fight back when criticized — he said the Kerry campaign’s mistake in 2004 was that it ended up “like a deer caught in the headlights”. That when the Swift Boat smear campaign started, Kerry should have challenged Bush and Cheney to a town-hall debate on their Vietnam records. Clinton said:
Bush and Cheney were like me—they didn’t go. But Kerry was a genuine war hero!
Hillary, like Bill, doesn’t sit still for criticism. This might not be enough to make her electable, and it certainly doesn’t make her any less moderate, but it’s something, right?
Since Clinton’s eruption on Fox, other Dem mouthpieces, like Paul Begala and James carville, have already given it a try. Yelling back at Bill O’Reilley and what-not. But until November the only clear winner is Fox News, with a ratings-boost last week.
What does more good — criticizing Fox News on Fox News, which (surprisingly) has a 20% Democrat and 17% independent viewership? Or making fun of Bill O’Reilley on the Colbert Report, which has a 110% liberal commie viewership?
3 Responses to Oh, snap Bill!
The clips of Clinton made me a little nervous, actually, since he totally lost his cool. I’m glad he struck back, but I think it would have been more effective if he had calmly swatted back anything Wallace threw at him. So I guess I’m not surprised that Fox is the only winner so far.
Interesting, I had the complete opposite reaction. True, Clinton’s obvious fluster proved that no one, really, can argue as beautifully and gracefully under pressure like President Bartlett on The West Wing. But, it proved that this was something that was not rehearsed, and I was happy to see true emotion in politics (which to me signals real interest) vs. polished rhetoric.
Ah, no, it was the genius of Clinton! I’m not kidding. He knew if he pitched a hissy, that THAT would be the sound bite that everybody watched, and it was. Way to go, Bill!
I’m still pissed that Americans gave a rat’s ass what he did with a person who was definitely not underage, unlike this Foley, who apparently sent “sick” [the 16-year-old recipient’s description] messages to a 16-year-old page!