Clinton's speech distorted

This is what I get for trusting news reports on Bill Clinton's comments about Hillary.

Yesterday I quoted from a New York Times article that suggested Bill had compared criticism of Hillary to the "Swift boat" ads against John Kerry. However, Greg Sargent and Media Matters make a convincing case that what Bill said was distorted. Read in context, his comments were directed at the way the media facilitates Republican attacks against Democrats, not the criticisms of Hillary made by other Democratic candidates.

Here's the Media Matters transcript from the video:

PRESIDENT CLINTON: [T]he point I'm here to make to you is whoever you're for, this is a really big election. We saw what happened the last seven years when we made decisions in elections based on trivial matters. When we listened to people make snide comments about whether Vice President [Al] Gore was too stiff. When they made dishonest claims about the things that he said that he'd done in his life. When that scandalous Swift boat ad was run against Senator [John] Kerry [D-MA].

When there was an ad that defeated [former Sen.] Max Cleland [D] in Georgia -- a man that left half his body in Vietnam. And a guy that had several deferments ran an ad with Max Cleland's picture with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, because he dared to vote against the president's version of the Homeland Security bill.

Most Americans still don't know the truth. The president was against the Homeland Security bill for eight and a half months. And [former White House senior adviser] Karl Rove told him they were going to lose the 2002 elections unless the American people were scared about terror again. So, they decided to be for a bill they'd opposed -- and they put a poison pill in it.

That bill was designed by the president to take the job rights away from 170,000 federal employees that had no access to secure information, no access to secure technology, no business being treated like CIA agents. Look, we need to be able to fire CIA agents without going through a long process in the public, right? ... But we don't need to treat secretaries at FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] that way. I mean, the whole thing was a scam.

So Max Cleland said, "I didn't go to Vietnam and leave one arm and two legs to come home and hold my job by stripping the job rights from 170,000 good, hard-working Americans. I won't do it. So they put an ad on comparing him to Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.

Why am I saying this?

Because, I had the feeling, at the end of that last debate, we were about to get into cutesy land again. "Ya'll raise your hand if you're for illegal immigrants getting driver's licenses." So, we'll then let the Republicans run an ad saying, "All the Democrats are against the rule of law."

I don't -- look, I think it's fine to discuss immigration. We should. Illegal immigration needs to be discussed, and it's fine for Hillary and all these other guys to be asked about Governor Spitzer's plan -- but not in 30 seconds, yes, no, raise your hand. This is a complicated issue. This is a complicated issue.

So, do I hope you'll vote for my wife? You bet I do. It'd be good for America and good for the world. But, more than that, I came here to tell you today: Don't you dare let them take this election away from you. This belongs to you and to your children -- and to the future of America.

Don't be diverted. Don't be divided. Our best days are still ahead, claim them. Thank you.

It's worth noting, however, that Clinton, like Michael Tomasky and many other Democrats, pushes the myth that the 2002 Saxby Chambliss ad against Max Cleland "[compared Cleland] to Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden." As I showed, that is not true.

Comments

[Rob]

Former President Clinton said, "Karl Rove told [the President] they were going to lose the 2002 elections unless the American people were scared about terror again. So, they decided to be for a bill they'd opposed -- and they put a poison pill in it." If this sort of unsupported factual allegation and attribution of improper motive were said by a Republican, Brendan would be quick to label it a "smear." When said by former President Clinton, not so much.

[Howard]

I think your defense of the anti-Cleland ad is a bit over-stated. Your judging it as though it were a text ad (or even a radio ad).

No it did not literally "compare" him to Saddam or bin Ladden. It showed those individuals while referring to terrorists and extremist dictators.

It had bin Ladden's image shift and fade and Cleland's appeared - in the same general area on the screen and in the same proportions.

Then it denounced Cleland (just as it had denounced "terrorists" and "extremist dictators") saying, "he lacked the courage to lead" and was "misleading" (a liar). It demonstrated that by generally distorting his voting record, saying he opposed Homeland Security.

It did not literally say Cleland was a terrorist or an extremist dictator, it only linked them to him and associated them with him by saying he was opposed to fighting them and was lying about it.