Questioner calls Bush 'the bastard,' Hillary Clinton smiles

Over the weekend there was an as yet little-noticed incident in Bridgeton, Mo., just outside St. Louis. Sen. Hillary Clinton addressed a town hall meeting there and was taking questions from the audience.

One elderly woman rose and was asking the Democratic candidate about a rumored economic union among the United States, Canada and Mexico that is widely discussed, feared and abhorred among conspiracy fanciers. The woman said the president planned to implement the secret agreement in 2010.

Then the woman called the president "Bush the bastard."

The Democratic crowd immediately roared its approval.

Sen. Clinton nodded her head slightly and smiled.

Then, she proceeded to ...

answer the question, saying "there's not a lot of truth to it." Our colleagues over at the Swamp have posted Glenn Thrush's detailed account of the incident, which you can read here.

It'll be interesting to see if Clinton's silent assent to that crude comment arouses as much criticism and controversy as last year when a Republican woman in South Carolina asked Sen. John McCain about Clinton, calling her "the bitch."

At the time, CNN showed a video clip of the incident and strongly criticized McCain for not admonishing the woman, although the candidate did say belatedly that he respected the New York senator.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Comments

[The Democrat Whisperer]

The antithesis in emotion to Bush leaving office will be watching Schrillary lose.

[jack]

Please let Hillary be the Dem nominee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ross Odom]

The coarsening of America continues, with the elderly and our presidential candidates blazing new trails of incivility.

[Nick]

This one will get buried in the press like all the other Liberal missteps. If a Republican did this, it would be front page news in the New York Times.

[Mad Max]

You people are such incredible suckers.
Hitlery is playing you for the interminable fools you are.
If you believe one word she is saying, you'll believe EVERY word she says.
Socialism, Communism, and Fascism are what's in store for America if you elect her. Mark my words.
Thus endeth the prophecy.

[tommy]

This is the double standard that Dems enjoy daily from the media. There is no way any Left-wing "news" media can report this unless they say how true it is. Dems r the most intolerant bunch in our country yet SAY they r the most tolerant. Just look at the racist JESSE, AL, BILLARY race baiters to see the proof. You can also see the hatred at the liberal blogs where anything goes. DEMS ARE JUST SORE LOSERS AND WHINERS. FOR A BETTER DESCRIPTION OF LIBS, SEE TEAM AMERICA SPEECH AT N. KOREAN HQ!!

[J-Man]

This is typical left wing politics. How can the democrats hope to ever capture the hearts and minds of Americans when they lower themselves to such levels? McCain was blasted for the exact same thing last year, and this year when it is Hitlary's turn, she acts the same and gets a pass. When are you going to figure out that most people in this country are not just democrats or republicans, but are Americans first? Start acting like mature adults and maybe, just maybe, you will see a positive reaction beyond belief. Our country is better than this.

[bill isenberger]

I am really tired with candidates lowering themselves to the more base elements of the electorate. Campaign stop audiences are sounding more like The Daily Show's studio audience than an informed electorate. Bush has done more to harm this country since Jimmy Carter but he nonetheless is the Commander in Chief. Have respect for the office if not the man.

[El gato]

Hillary IS a bitch and Bush, while dumb, has the birth certificate to prove he's not a bastard. Democrats are the dumbest, meanest, and most uninformed voters in the history of Democracy. The blacks are too stupid to know that it was the Republicans who fought against slavery, and the Democrats who fought to maintain segregation until the last few decades. Wake up monkeys!

[diane]

The "the bastard" comment - or something much akin) has been proffered by a couple of teachers at my daughter's high school and I will say here what I said to the school board: anyone who has attained the highest office in the land, who stands as leader of the free world, deserves the respect to be addressed as Mr. President or President Bush or the President. I don't agree with everything President Bush says or does and agreed with very little that President Clinton said or did - but both men have served as President of the United States and should be addressed/referred to as such. Both McCain and Hillary Clinton should have pointed that out in the instances outlined in your article. If they don't grant the respect, why should anyone give it to either of them?

[Roberta]

This incident pales in comparison with McCain's anti-Hillary "beat the bitch" incident.

I suppose we will hear more about McCain's telling and re-telling of a very nasty lesbian joke about Hillary Clinton, Janet Reno and Chelsea Clinton that was reported in Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s recently-published Journals -- after McCain in nominated.

[dectra]

OMG....can anyone say " Planted Questioner ! ! ! "

This is an Obvious attempt by a right wing plant to cover up McCain's agreement to the earlier 'bitch' question that he did not disavow.

Right wingers are SO predictable. What they aren't is effective.

6 years of GOP misrule and what did we get?

NO Immigration Reform
NO Border Control
NO Social Security Reform
NO Health Care Reform
NO OSAMA

but we did get:

Out of Control Spending by the GOP (the party of so called fiscal responsibility)
A war based on Lies
An Unacountable White House
A Deficit from Hell

and now, McCain who has spent the same 6 years sucking up to bush and the gop power base, wants the nod to continue policies that have been with out a doubt a Disaster.

[John Watters]

Bush is a bastard, get over it.

[William]

Hillary feeds on this kind of stuff. She is still an adolescent, and the action of smiling and doing nothing in this situation proves it to me. She hates Bush, the free enterprise system, liberty, and most everything that makes this country work. In short, she is a soc/com who needs to be defeated.

[Raynell Locklar]

This is just another reason why Hillary Clinton does not need to be elected president. By smiling she gave the impression that she approved of the comment by the questioner calling Bush "the bastard". By not defending PRESIDENT BUSH she also was not respecting the office of President of the United States. I also do not think if a person running for the office of President does not have respect for the sitting President by refering to him as Bush instead of President Bush. THEY DO NOT DESERVE TO BE PRESIDENT. I have noticed that she and a lot of liberal media does not have class or manners a lot of the time when they refer to President Bush as Bush. They say America is not respected around the world......don't they realized they are part of the problem when they don't show respect for the President of the United States. It does not matter if you do not like the President. He was elected and he is the president and he should be respected. You can disagree with policies in a respectful way. That is what you call manners and class.

[Mark]

Whoa - hold on here. There is no comparison. Hillary Clinton is a Democrat Senator who represents only the people of New York. John McCain represents only the people of Arizona.

However, President Bush is OUR President and represents all of the United States. Although both comments were crude and beneath the dignity of common courtesy that we should exhibit and encourage as we engage in our politics, there is really no comparison. Trashing the leader and affirming that demagoguery, during war, is a form, even if only in its most mild degree, of sedition. A Southern rube insulting a Yankee politician really is no comparison.

Thank you, Andrew, for calling attention to this and to the media's hypocrisy.

Yet watch how the media covers for the Democrat, who assented to mild sedition, and condemned the Republican, who assented to mild crudeness.

[Bob Wilson]

Did the questioner also address Hillary as "the witch?"

[rdavis]

Hillary should stop worrying about Mr. Bush and stop bashing him. He is the least of her problems now. Mr. Bush is not running against her, but if she would look behind her, Barack is there and gaining fast..
Hillary is finding it harder and harder to expain just what she can do for this country. She has done -0- so far.

[KyleCope]

The BEST Hillary spoof EVER:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGMgxFE6bms
or search HILLARY TERMINATOR at You Tube

[Boba Fett]

So, she called Bush a bastard? Was she lying? Don't you call a spade a spade? What'd the old woman do wrong? what did Hillary do wrong? Bush's place in hell is firmly established, ain't it?

[Darrell Burchfield]

Once again the dems show their lack of class. How can you trust people like this visiting with heads of state and dignitaries when you cannot trust what comes out of their mouth.

Bush has more class in his little finger than the entire liberal establishment has, you would never hear him using such school yard name calling.

[B. Thomas Cooper]

Hillary is not the moral Judge of others and should not be expected to interfere with their First Amendment protected freedom of expression.

Furthermore, George W. Bush is a liar and a warmonger, and being the bastard he truly is should be the last of his worries.

[Ramat]

This is offensive, no doubt about it. It is a disgrace to the term "bastard" to associate it with George W. Bush.

[Martha]

Classy response from a classy candidate. (Sarcasm)

[abby abercrombie]

the woman that said, "BUSH THE BASTARD," is so low in class she doesn't even have any. where is the Secret Service when some idiot belts this out. was billary's face smiling or something else (i should say which cheeks)? this country has no CLASS or SELF RESPECT. how can you blame President Bush for anything other countries think of America when citizens act like a "HORSE'S ASS?" everyone says GOD BLESS AMERICA, we should stop and starting asking, GOD HELP AMERICA.