What President Clinton said was the very definition of McCarthyism

[maximusveritas]

The American Heritage Dictionary (2000) defines "McCarthyism" as:

the practice of publicizing accusations of political disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence

And here's what Bill said when pushing the idea of a Clinton-McCain matchup, obviously in contrast to an Obama-McCain matchup:

"I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country," said Clinton, who was speaking to a group of veterans Friday in Charlotte, N.C. "And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics."

The Clinton campaign's defense of his statement was unconvincing. They say "President Clinton was talking about the need to talk about issues, rather than falsely questioning any candidate's patriotism."

But they ignore the first part of his statement, where he clearly says we will only be able focus on the issues IF we had two people like Clinton and McCain who loved the country. This strongly implies that the other candidate (Obama) doesn't love his country. In other words, Bill is "publicizing accusations of political disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence".

Of course, since he didn't directly say it, it allows him and his supporters to hold onto some semblence of plausable deniability. This follows a long line of incidents involving Bill where he tries to strongly suggest something bad about Obama without directly saying it. A perfect example came during his interview with Charlie Rose last December where he repeatedly took veiled jabs at Obama and then denied it when Rose asked him directly about what he was suggesting:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/12/interview_with_bill_clinton_1.html
And he did it again a month later while race-baiting in South Carolina:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/01/bubba-obama-is.html

If it happened just one or two times, I might be able to believe his line about people being hypersensitive and misinterpreting his remarks. But this has happened multiple times now and I just don't trust Bill anymore.

[DJ13]

1. Criticizing disloyalty is straight out of the GOP playbook

Im having trouble remembering that the Clintons are supposedly still registered Democrats.

[Ravy]

3. I criticize disloyalty all the time, and I am most definitely a Democrat. nt

[XemaSab]

5. This isn't criticizing disloyalty so much as questioning patriotism.

Criticizing disloyalty is when you compare Richardson to Judas. :P

[bluestateguy]

2. I'm willing to cut him a pass this time

I heard the whole extended remarks, and I took the "this other stuff" remark as meaning non-issues that always inefect our campaings, including Clinton's in 1992.

[RazBerryBeret]

4. EVEN if you

can get past the (obvious to me) slam on Obama's Partriotism (remember Bill is a master of the English Language)....Bill STILL garnered praise on McCain -- who obviously LOVES this country so much he's willing to continue an illegal war for 100 years...God, I hope Hillary doesn't LOVE this country THAT much.....

[maximusveritas]

7. Yes, non-issues like the Wright controversy

That wasn't what bothered me. It was the first part where he says it would be great IF we had two candidates who loved their country, talking about McCain and Clinton.

[bluestateguy]

9. OK, but I still didn't see where he said or implied that Obama did not love America

In heated campaigns like this we have a tendency to assign meaning to the words of our opponents even when that meaning has to be creatively implied.

Having said that, Bill Clinton has said some dumb ass things in this primary season.

[guruoo]

10. I'm still scratching my head over that one, too.

[depakid]

6. You don't have to trust Bill to realize that the accusation of McCarthyism is over the top

all you have to do is read the history and behaviors of that era- and look at some of the statements Republicans have made over the past 7 years (which actually ARE reasonably comparable with that behavior).

Bill's problem (aside from his recent foot in mouth disorder) is same as it was during the 1990's -he enables and legitimizes the opposition.

[UALRBSofL]

8. Don't pay any attention to President Bill Clinton

He's just a "typical white person".

[guruoo]

11. Oh, that's terrible! (ROTFL!)

Now -go sit in the corner!

:rofl: