Thanks a lot, Bill Clinton

This past week Sen. Hillary Clinton left South Carolina to campaign in Feb. 5 voting states. But she left behind her husband, Bill, as her surrogate campaigner and attacker of Sen. Barack Obama.

It's looking tonight, as Obama racks up a huge margin of victory in the Palmetto State, like that was a mistake. A large one.

The spectacle of a former president getting down and dirty in the current political trenches with numerous attacks on the freshman Illinois senator may have backfired big-time.

According to CNN exit polls, the ex-president's campaigning was an important factor in nearly 60% of Democrats' voting decisions. Of those, 47% went for Obama and only 38% for Clinton's wife. Fourteen percent went for John Edwards.

The polls also indicate that 20% of South Carolina Democratic voters made their decision in the last three days, when news coverage of B. Clinton's attacks on Obama were intense. Of those 20% late-deciders, fully 57% went for Obama while only 18% voted for the New York senator.

Additionally, the Obama campaign provided statistics showing that the two Greenville precincts that the ex-president visited today ended up voting 78% and 80% for Obama, while giving H. Clinton only 15% and 16% and Edwards 2% and 5%.

An Obama spokesman estimated based on early returns that his candidate would capture 25 South Carolina delegates tonight, Clinton 12 and Edwards 8. The Associated Press reported Clinton now has a running delegate total of 249, Obama 167 and Edwards 58.

Late tonight, a Clinton aide said that Bill Clinton would continue campaigning for his wife. Based on South Carolina's unfolding results, that may be good news for the Obama crowd.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Comments

[Jason]

unless, of course, that's exactly what Hill-Bill wanted.

[chris cameron]

Obama got the black vote. He was always going to get the black vote. Jesse Jackson won the South Carolina primary twice, in 1984 and 1988. Why are you spinning this as being another Clinton negative, when it was so clearly about black folks voting for a very popular black candidate?

You guys in the media are so obsessed with your Clinton hatred that you can't even evaluate the results of an election without bias.

Clinton will very likely be the Democratic nominee. I guess you'd better start thinking about how you are going to spin that into a negative too.

[Bill hurt america and hillary]

I think Bill hurt Hillary and America because he was playing fast and loose with the truth without thinking first. I thought Bill looked stupid and Hillary looked desperate.

[Vinny]

According to the primary results, it looks there were less than 450,000 participants in the Republican primary and more than 500,000 voters in the Democratic primary. What if the turnout is extrapolated in the November general election? Does this portend to seismic realignment in 2008 favoring Democrats in the presidential general election?? South Carolina has been a reliable red state for many election cycles and there are many possible reasons behind the turnout differences (ie Democrats are more motivated in their intra-party skirmish than Republicans, weather, current low Bush approval ratings, Iraq, economy, etc.) but I think it would be interesting to see if there has been a history of a correlation between which party a state voted for in the general election and which party had a better primary turnout.

[Dems2008]

Bill Clinton said a lot about Obama that was not true. He mischarcterized Obama's record and voters saw through it. He hurt Hillary in the end. Bill Clinton is probably the most charismatic and brightest president we've had---but voters also know that he bends the truth and lacks candor. " I did not have an affair with that woman, Miss Lewinsky" is finally catching up to him.

[JohnSmithP]

Bill Clinton was just following the script to win at any cost. If it didn't work this time, he and Hillary will try something else. Anything to divert people's attention from the promise and opportunity offered by Barack Obama.

Which is why this election should be more about the character of the person we elect to be our next President. A person’s character is shaped and tested by their experiences.

1969 – While Barack Obama was being raised by a single mother and experiencing a life of racial and cultural diversity , Hillary Clinton was learning the art of triangulation and writing an admiring college thesis on Saul Alinsky whose fifth rule of political agitation was, “Ridicule is man's most potent weapon.”

1979 – While Barack Obama was actively involved in the South African divestment movement to end apartheid, Hillary was reaping profits of almost 10,000% in the futures markets and leaving taxpayers with her real-estate losses in the Savings & Loan bailout.

1989 – While Barack Obama served as the Harvard Law Review’s first black president in its 104 year history, Hillary Clinton then wife of the Arkansas governor was receiving payments from a law firm that was doing the state's business and receiving board of director payments from Wal-Mart where she remained silent about Wal-Mart’s anti-labor union practices.

1999 – While Barack Obama was securing bipartisan support for health-care reform and passage of low-income tax credits and child care subsidies in the Illinois legislature, Hillary Clinton was urging her husband to bomb Yugoslavia and supporting his Iraq “regime change” policy in an effort to divert public attention from the president’s marital, legal and ethical misconduct.

2007 – While Barack was promoting a restoration of balance between work and wealth and criticizing special interests for distorting U.S. tax codes, Hillary and her husband were liquidating their blind trust of the nearly $50 million amassed during their years in public office.

The U.S. needs a uniter not a divider for President as the global economy teeters on the brink of economic meltdown not unlike the Great Depression.

Afterall the Roaring Twenties decade that preceded the Great Depression, like the Irrational Nineties that preceded our current decade, were both a golden age for technology, scandal-plagued politicians, corporate greed, and unrestrained personal debt and speculation.

[Billy T]

Chris Cameron:

anytime you don't like the analysis it's a "spin??"

Bill Clinton hurt his wife's showing in SC, plain and simple. He presents an uncomfortable reminder that if Hillary is in the Oval Office, we'll end up with Bill running part of the show. If ever he and Hillary disagrees, White House staff and cabinet will be split into two.

We don't need two presidents at the same time, just one good one, and with Hillary in Oval Office that's exactly what you'll get: one ex-prez trying to tell another prez how to do things, and the prez is not going to take that kindly. She may say it's all good right now on the campaign, but as soon as it becomes a Bill Clinton show version 3.0, the executive branch will snap in two.

[Ali Hangan]

Bill Clinton is hurting Hillary. You can't be a white liberal that talks about equality for all then, when an African American man has a real chance of being elected to the highest office in the land, bad mouth him on the national stage. Whether, that is fair to Bill Clinton or that Obama is of good character is not the point. To African-Americans ,it looks like just another white man trying to hold a brother down. This is the perspective that most blacks have in their hearts when Bill Clinton is critical of Obama and the 80% plus of Black voters that voted for Obama in South Carolina primaries gives evidence that suggests this is the case.

[raffia66]

There is nothing that Bill Clinton could have done to prevent Obama winning South Carolina. How could African-Americans not help but choose one of their own? Besides, even Jesse Jackson did well in South Carolina.

At this point Edwards is clearly a spoiler and needs to get out before the next debate, so that we can see Clinton and Obama toe to toe without a third wheel trying to interject something for his own gain. May the best person win and choose the other as the running mate.

[Bill Clinton]

I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. But, you know what, I'm right. Jesse Jackson did win South Carolina, they don't know any better. They're not like you, California. My special mocha skinned California.

You know what else? Brown is the new black. Am I reaching out to my Latino friends? Si. California, you know I'm the one for you. We've been through so much together. You don't really want to hurt me. Do you?

Now they're saying I crossed the line. I'm sorry. I can't help it. I've always played fast and loose. You knew that when you met me. That's what attracted you to me. Boy, those were good times. Wouldn't it be great to feel like that again? I'll tell you a secret. I've been longing for you this whole time. You can't imagine how badly i've longed for you.

I need you. I can't go on without you. Please California. Please let me back into your life.

Oh, and you can have the first female president. Wouldn't that be something. You get it all. A woman president and me. Oh, we'll be perfect this time. We' make it work. I promise. I love you.

[raffia66]

Why doesn't anyone reveal the true delegate count - where Clinton is leading Obama substantially? Are you guys Opranalists? It's about time Obama won after losing New Hampshire, Michigan, and Nevada, especially considering even Jesse Jackson won South Carolina twice. So get real. At this point Obama is still running for vice president. As for the third wheel, John Edwards, he is a spoiler, and should not be included in the debates.

[Jenna]

It's too early to see whether Bill has helped or hurt Hillary yet. Bill is no fool and I think his comments were part of a much larger long term strategy. I am sad to say it, but I am not so sure getting 80% of the black vote will give Obama the bounce he needs. The truth is that he didn't fare that well among white voters and that is something he needs to remedy if he is going to win the nomination. That said, as a Hillary supporter I am really happy that no matter who wins the nomination I will have someone to vote for in November that I believe in.

[Lisa Pease]

A year ago, Time Magazine ran an article headlined, "Is Obama Black Enough?" Prodded by Sen. Biden's comment indicating that Obama was articulte, i.e., an aberration from his race, black commentators all over the country started saying Obama wasn't their kind of black.

So it's ironic now that some want to say he won "because" he was black. To hear people talking a year ago, he won in spite of that.

[Jenna]

I couldn’t resist a response to John Smith P’s biased view of Hillary’s past. Here are a few others things she was up to during the same time period.

1970
- While at Yale law school Hillary took on cases of child abuse at Yale-New Haven Hospital,and volunteered at New Haven Legal Services to provide free advice for the poor.
--She was awarded a grant to work at Marian Wright Edelman's Washington Research Project, where she was assigned to Senator Walter Mondale's Subcommittee on Migratory Labor, researching migrant workers' problems in housing, sanitation, health and education

1971
Interned on child custody cases[at the Oakland, California, law firm of Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein, which was well-known for its support of constitutional rights, civil liberties, and radical causes.

1973
Served as staff attorney for Edelman's newly founded Children's Defense Fund in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There she worked on school desegregation in South.

1974
-Was a member of the impeachment inquiry staff in Washington, D.C., advising the House Committee on the Judiciary during the Watergate scandal.

1977
Joined the Rose Law Firm, specializing in patent infringement and intellectual property
law,while also working pro bono in child advocacy. She maintained her interest in
children's law and family policy, publishing the scholarly articles "Children's Policies:
Abandonment and Neglect" and "Children's Rights: A Legal Perspective" in 1979.
-Co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, a state-level alliance with the Children's Defense Fund
-President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the board of directors of the Legal Services Corporation, and she served in that capacity from 1978 through the end of 1981. For much of that time she served as the chair of that board, the first woman to do so.

1978
-As first lady of Arkansas she was appointed chair of the Rural Health Advisory Committee, where she successfully obtained federal funds to expand medical facilities in Arkansas' poorest areas without affecting doctors' fees.

1983
-Appointed to Board of Wal-Mart. While being the youngest and only woman director she used her position to champion causes, like the need for more women in management and a comprehensive environmental program.

1993
-Appointed the chairwoman of the Task Force on National Health Care Reform, and attempted to pass universal health care. Despite being decried as “secretive” there were 600 in the working group.

1997
-Helped establish State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which granted millions of children health care.
-Helped establish Adoption and Safe Families Act
-Helped create with Attorney General Janet Reno the Office on Violence Against Women at the Department of Justice.

I could go on, but I think I made my point. Both candidates have things we can be proud of. I don’t think it’s necessary to tear each other down to get our candidate to the finish line. And before you say they did it first, all I can say is I hope they stop the negative attacks too. Hillary is a great candidate in her own right and I think she could win without the current strategy.

[Sean]

Obama's win was a coalition that included whites, men, women and the white college students. The Clinton's did not succeed playing the race card. The Clintons really needed to win South Carolina. They could have put an end to Obama if they could have pulled at least 50% of Black voters.

Who ever thought that the Clintons would have to fight for Black votes? Now Obama has momentum and media bliss. Obama leaves South Carolina still needing and able to appeal to progressive Whites.

Obama wants to push the perception that he will bring people together, unlike Hillary. Hillary cannot fight Obama on that argument. She is the most polarizing figure in American politics. And now we know that Bill is no longer "the first Black president".

Obama is building a coalition that can produce victory for the Democrats in November.

[Nugster]

Hilary Jilary, will be elected by the kinesit for the unted states of israel.

p.s. come on mexican's wake up and please don't give your vote to hilary jilary.

[Suzanne]

Please let me correct commenter Chris Cameron's statement that "Obama got the black vote. He was always going to get the black vote." Cameron then goes on, like President Clinton earlier today, to compare the win to Jesse Jackson's, presumably in an effort to marginalize Senator Obama as a "Black candidate" with limited appeal and a non-viable candidacy. Given the overwhelming victory Senator Obama had with African-American voters in South Carolina, it is easy to forget that until relatively recently, polls showed Senator Clinton with significantly more support from that demographic than Senator Obama. For example, in the CNN poll from the summer (available on pollster.com), Senator Clinton had the support of 39% of all likely Democratic primary voters, but 47% of likely African-American voters. Senator Obama had support from just 25% of likely primary voters, and just 31% of likely African-American voters. Even the polls of the past week had Senator Obama with African-American support at less than 60%, not the 80% he received. Many African-Americans, then, like a significant number of other voters in South Carolina, made up their mind late, or switched their support from Senator Clinton to Senator Obama by election day. This was likely based on a number of factors -- perhaps they concluded he was the best positioned candidate to bring change and improve the economy, or perhaps they were offended by what they perceived as race-baiting by some in the Clinton campaign, or wanted to reject old Washington-style negative politics, or a combination. But equally important to Senator Obama's ability to come from behind and earn the support of African-Americans is the coalition he built beyond that group to deliver such a resounding, 27 point margin win. Remember, he received roughly the same number of votes from White men as Senator Clinton, just about a quarter of White votes overall, and won the young White vote. South Carolina is just one state, but Senator Obama won this contest so decisively because his message is resonating with a lot of voters and bringing so many new ones to the process. With no disrespect to Jesse Jackson, Senator Obama has a much, much, broader appeal and potential to earn the nomination.

[Cesaria]

How dismissive to boil this down to the 'black vote'. Why do white people marginalize voters this way? Did anyone question the women's (white women's) vote in NH? Why are white people given the benefit of the doubt as if they vote on merit but people of color, specifically black people vote only on race? Clinton is no better or worse of a candidate than Obama, but by stating Obama got the black vote (something that isn't true because he couldn't win solely on the black vote), you make Obama out to be inferior and the votes of black people to be meaningless next to that of white people.

[Sophie]

So did Obama get the black vote in Iowa as well? It's amazing the hypocritical racism which abides in the Clinton faction of the Democratic Party. When they lose, despite their oily, corporate greased campaigns, they label Obama the black candidate. The Clintons are the reason I hate the Democratic Party.

[Robin Kentucky]

I am deeply sadden by Caroline's endorsement of Senator Obama. I understand that she feels he is inspiring, but what we need now is more than just inspiration.

I have to wonder if Caroline would have endorsed Senator Obama, if Jackie Kennedy Onassis was still alive. Jackie was very fond of the Clinton's stating how Bill and his visions reminded her of her husband. Jackie was a friend to Hillary often sharing stories of raising children in such a public eye.

Upon her death, John F Kennedy,Jr. sent the Clinton's a hand written letter that said " I wanted you both to understand how much your burgeoning friendship with my mother meant to her. Since she left Washington I believe she resisted ever connecting with it emotionally-or the institutional demands of being a former First Lady. It had much to do with the memories stirred and her desires to resist being cast in a lifelong role that didn't quite fit. However, she seemed pro fondly happy and relived to allow herself to reconnect with it through you. It helped her in a profound way- whether it was discussing the perils of raising children in those circumstances or perhaps it was the many similarities between your presidency and my fathers".

It appears that the Clinton's not only inspired a nation, but also a former First Lady. Though I respect Caroline's decision to talk of Obama's inspiration and his great work in Chicago. It still does not take away from the facts, that his "resume" comes up short!!! Americans need more than inspiration after the Bush administration.

Americans need a proven leader who has traveled the "World" building relationships with foreign leaders. We need someone who has dedicated their entire adult life to helping the under privileged in our Country. Someone who has fought for civil, human and yes, woman's rights. Not only here in America but across the globe. We need a proven voice that can reach out across party lines. We need someone who is battle tested. We need change for our failing economy. We need universal heathcare. We need jobs. We need to focus on our energy crisis. We need "our" men and woman home. Americans need a leader. Americans need Hillary Clinton!

Though Obama is a beautifully spoken and inspiring gentleman. I am inspired by the years of hard work and dedication that Hillary brings to the table. Kitchen table at that! I am inspired by her ability to stand strong during the media's continuous bias. I am inspired by a woman who has been fighting for American since before I was born. I am inspired by her continued wiliness to make America better to help make Martin Luther King Jr. dreams a reality. The speeches she heard LIVE all those years ago when segregation was thought to be impossible there stood in Chicago a very young white girl, on a mission to learn and help. Hillary has dedicate her life to a cause so great it has empowered her during some of the toughest times. When most would have given in, she stands to fight for us again and again. That to me, is inspiration. Hillary Rodham Clinton is an inspiration to many Americans and Many Woman all over the WORLD!!!

Today I am endorsing Hillary Clinton. My voice is only one and I am not famous. I will not be on front pages of the dailies across the Country. I am not a Kennedy who swam along side of Chelsea, with her Mom and Bill and Hillary at Menemsha Harbor. I am not
"a perceptive friend and role model to Chelsea", as Caroline Kennedy was regarded.

I am an American endorsing the only other American running who is qualified to lead and passionate enough to never forget us.

I am an Inspired American from Kentucky and I am proud to endorse, support and volunteer for the 44th President of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

My name is Robin Davidson and I not only approve this message, but I wrote it.

[biwah]

As long as we're talking about the black vote, recall that Clinton had the active support of most of the political heavy hitters in the South Carolina black community. Obama did it without them, and did it huge. Granted, he needed huge - and he got it.

That's one of the continued narratives of this primary that bodes well for him. The younger, more marginal, less moneyed operatives can make it happen.

[biwah]

Robin Kennedy:

Having passed in 1994, Jackie Onassis missed most of the less attractive developments and revelations of the Clinton administration. Is it safe to say that Bill Clinton's philandering in the oval office, his politically expedient triangulating, and general two-facedness, wold have diminished her fondness?

Onassis never gave much indication as to what she would think of a Hillary candidacy.

In any case, this election is showing a difference of opinion between the younger generation and their elders. The appetite for change, and disgust for the Clintons, is overtaking the fear of that change, and the willingness to endure a less than desirable known quantity. It is hard to imagine how Caroline Kennedy could draw the parallel between Hillary and her father today, even if that parallel may have been drawn at one time with Bill.

[Yvonne]

In my opinion, Hillary and her campaign staff hurt Hillary, not Bill Clinton. He just struck the final blow.

I am a 48 year old, college educated white female who was already to vote for Hillary. I figured then that a dream ticket would include her as Prez and Obama as VP. My premise for that way of thinking was that I felt though Hillary did not have any direct experience in the White House, she sure had a lot of indirect experience and was privy to top secret information, and also to the way a President thinks through a strategy or solution to a problem.

I had long admired the integrity, honesty, and intelligence of Barack Obama, however, I had not decided to fully endorse him as a Presidential nominee until Hillary decided to come out of the ring swinging with both gloves. I remember thinking to myself how 'cheap and undignified' it was of her to take swings at someone from her very own party...a man who embraces many of the ideals that she does. After hearing her, and Bill, repeatedly bash Obama week after week, day after day, I soon found myself thinking, "they aren't anything but polished up rednecks." sigh.

The day I felt that is the day that I full heartedly began to campaign for Mr. Barack Obama. I am able to look beyond his direct experience in the White House and see him for the man of integrity and intelligence I believe he truly is. In fact, I've rethought my position on 'experience,' and now believe that perhaps Obama's lack of 'political ties' and 'politics as usual' 'experience' will actually benefit ALL Americans positively.

May God bless you, Mr. Obama, and smile down on ALL Americans. Congratulations on winning the nomination.

Sincerely,

Yvonne Tavano