Clintons Losing Liberal Support To Obama
From Fox News ~ Like lovers scorned, Bill Clinton’s longtime liberal supporters are walking out on him, slamming the door behind them and rebuking the 42nd president for his behavior leading up to last weekend’s South Carolina primary.
Clinton’s base seems to be eroding fast as liberal Democratic stalwarts join up with Barack Obama, whose message of change seems now to apply not only to the Bush Administration of the last seven years, but the eight-year Clinton Administration that preceded it.
Obama’s biggest “get” was Sen. Ted Kennedy, who abandoned his neutrality in the presidential race and endorsed Obama over Hillary Clinton on Monday. While Obama insists the Massachusetts senator’s endorsement was not a repudiation of anyone, it was clear that Kennedy - along with his niece Caroline Kennedy and son Rep. Patrick Kennedy — had reached beyond the Clintons to pass the mantle of the Democratic party’s liberal wing to Obama.
And while the Kennedys may open the floodgates, they were hardly the first liberals to abandon the Clintons for Obama. In recent weeks the Clintons have watched many of their supporters drift to the young senator from Illinois.
Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats’ 2004 presidential candidate, endorsed Obama recently. On Tuesday, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius climbed aboard, the morning after she delivered the Democrats’ rebuttal speech to President Bush’s State of the Union address.
Even novelist Toni Morrison, who once called Bill Clinton the “first black president,” has come out for Obama.
Liberal criticism of the Clintons has come from inside and outside the Beltway, from former supporters and colleagues. It ranges from the thinly veiled to the blatant. Robert Reich, former Clinton labor secretary, on his personal blog: “Bill Clinton’s ill-tempered and ill-founded attacks on Barack Obama are doing no credit to the former President, his legacy, or his wife’s campaign. Nor are they helping the Democratic party … Now, sadly, we’re witnessing a smear campaign against Obama that employs some of the worst aspects of the old politics.”
Clinton’s base seems to be eroding fast as liberal Democratic stalwarts join up with Barack Obama, whose message of change seems now to apply not only to the Bush Administration of the last seven years, but the eight-year Clinton Administration that preceded it.
Obama’s biggest “get” was Sen. Ted Kennedy, who abandoned his neutrality in the presidential race and endorsed Obama over Hillary Clinton on Monday. While Obama insists the Massachusetts senator’s endorsement was not a repudiation of anyone, it was clear that Kennedy - along with his niece Caroline Kennedy and son Rep. Patrick Kennedy — had reached beyond the Clintons to pass the mantle of the Democratic party’s liberal wing to Obama.
And while the Kennedys may open the floodgates, they were hardly the first liberals to abandon the Clintons for Obama. In recent weeks the Clintons have watched many of their supporters drift to the young senator from Illinois.
Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats’ 2004 presidential candidate, endorsed Obama recently. On Tuesday, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius climbed aboard, the morning after she delivered the Democrats’ rebuttal speech to President Bush’s State of the Union address.
Even novelist Toni Morrison, who once called Bill Clinton the “first black president,” has come out for Obama.
Liberal criticism of the Clintons has come from inside and outside the Beltway, from former supporters and colleagues. It ranges from the thinly veiled to the blatant. Robert Reich, former Clinton labor secretary, on his personal blog: “Bill Clinton’s ill-tempered and ill-founded attacks on Barack Obama are doing no credit to the former President, his legacy, or his wife’s campaign. Nor are they helping the Democratic party … Now, sadly, we’re witnessing a smear campaign against Obama that employs some of the worst aspects of the old politics.”
Labels: 2008 Presidential Race, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Liberal Democrats
posted by Mike McCarville @ 3:17 PM
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