Barack Obama 2008 *IS* Bill Clinton 1992.... without the bimbo eruptions....

[scheming daemons]

Both 46 years old

Both relatively unknown nationally at the time of their runs

Both got their "big break" giving the keynote address at the Dem convention four years earlier

Both with independent career women as spouses

Both with Ivy league educations

Both able to mesmerize a crowd with their speeches

Both basing their entire campaign on "Hope" and "Change"

Both claiming they have crossover appeal

Both with no personal military experience running against a military veteran

Both with a young, energetic campaign team that is playing by different rules than past Dem campaigns and answering attacks immediately

The biggest (non sex-related) "scandal" either of them has to deal with is a shady land deal that is much ado about absolutely nothing.




I bet, deep down, the Big Dawg sees a little of himself in Obama...and if anybody other than Hillary was running against Obama, Bubba would've been enthusiastically endorsing Barack a long time ago.


ON EDIT:

Both had to endure a "whispering" campaign that they were closet communists

Both came in second in New Hampshire

Both had/have an "Elvis-like" appeal to them... people WOULD pay to go to their events

Both had/have an initial love affair with the media

Both had to endure Democratic hand-wringing over their PERCEIVED inability to fight against the GOP smear machine (Lee Atwater-esque Willie Horton stuff back then, Swiftboating now)



ON SECOND EDIT:

Both never really knew their biological father

Both had a, more-or-less, 50-state strategy and not a silly 50%+1 strategy

[LakeSamish706]

1. Minus Monika though... n/t

[lapfog_1]

2. Secretly, and some pundits have said this, I think Big Dog wants

Hillary to lose. I don't know why he does, but he has done more damage than good.

[ContinentalOp]

14. I wonder if he would really want to go through it all again.

It seems like it would be kind of tiresome the second time around. And does he really want to be first hubby? It's an interesting thought.

[Bluebear]

3. "Bimbo eruptions", how very right-wing. nt

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[NMMNG]

24. We should be used to that by now

This whole place reeks of RW these days. :puke:

[anigbrowl]

26. Not a big priority for me, but it's true, like it or not. /nt

[rox63]

30. That was the commonly used term back when Bill was running

I believe it originally came from his own campaign staff, back when Gennifer Flowers first went public.

[XemaSab]

31. The term came from Clinton's own staff

n/t

[PBS Poll-435]

38. NO one, in the public arena, has used that term in the better part of a decade

EXCEPT for Rush Limbaugh

[Renew Deal]

I see the similarities.

And I think Bill knows it too.

[jackson_dem]

4. Both are "New Democrats" who claimed they would be able to end gridlock in DC too

[Johnny__Motown]

5. Governor of Arkansas defiantly had NO foreign policy experience

[jackson_dem]

7. He ran in 1992. Foreign policy was not a big issue given the collapse of the USSR the year before

In 2008 foreign policy experience will matter.

[Johnny__Motown]

I honestly believe that foreign policy is ALWAYS a big issue, ounce of prevention....

[anigbrowl]

27. I'll second that. I believe Obama is pretty solid there, though...

partly because he's not carrying any baggage from the 60s. He doesn't have to fend off accusations of being a draft dodger and he's not perceived as anti-military - although few have remarked on it, he's staked out a strong position on rebuilding the armed forces which have been stretched thin by Bush's adventurism. Obama himself seems highly populated with the military, and has done well in campaign donations from service personnel - better than any other candidate, last time I saw it reported. Troops are not going to have a problem saluting him, and I think the Joint Chiefs would just love to have him.

In the meantime, he's got a very clear position on the Iraq war that the majority of the country agrees with, and it's easy to paint McCain as a dangerously loose cannon. See, for example, MoveOn's negative 'bomb bomb bomb Iran' ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U39zae4IxUA&feature=related

[scheming daemons]

22. Bush Sr. TRIED to make it an issue....

Remember the famous commercial... ominous music playing as a camera slowly zooms in on the President's empty chair in the oval office.

Deep voice-over says something to the effect, "When problems erupt around the world, it MATTERS who is sitting in this chair."


...

[Johnny__Motown]

23. And we are still trying to deal with the "loose nukes" that were not secured when USSR broke up

Maybe it was a big issue and Bill did a crappy job with foreign policy

[scheming daemons]

8. Self Delete

[thoughtcrime1984]

9. The only question is

Can Nader 2008 be Ross Perot 1992? :D

[scheming daemons]

10. Nader 2008 can't even be Nader 2000......... Nader has become Lyndon Larouche.....

....

[FrenchieCat]

12. We have the youth vote.....and it appears that this baby boomlet

is quite large!

[Raine]

11. They are also both left handed!

:-)

[scheming daemons]

13. Just waiting for MTV to ask Barack "boxers or briefs"......

....the Clinton "pop" phenomenon in 1992 drove the right wing bat-shit crazy.

[ErnestoG]

16. I hope he answers "neither".

[MADem]

21. Thong, then?

:rofl:

[FrenchieCat]

18. Barack with a basketball is better than Bill with a saxophone, if you ask me!

[scheming daemons]

20. Who's that guy playing "Washington Generals" to Barack's "Harlem Globetrotters" in the first pic?

lol

[FrenchieCat]

25. Sport Illustrated's Senior Writer S.L. Price

[anigbrowl]

28. "Only Michelle can give you the answer to that, and she's not telling." nt

[Zynx]

15. How does an Ivy League education mean anything?

[scheming daemons]

19. Doesn't mean anything other than it is a similarity......

...and neither of them got into their Ivy League schools by being a "legacy"... unlike Bush.

[casus belli]

17. I'm not entirely sure that Bill is silently rooting for Barack to win...

and for that matter, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Hillary is as well.

There is an air of destiny with Barack I just can't explain. The first time I saw him speak (as keynote speaker in 2004), I said out loud to my wife "I think we just saw the first black president of the United States". And she agreed. I've talked to alot of people who felt this way the first time they "met" Barack. He's destined for greatness.

Don't get me wrong, Bill Clinton wasn't without his charm. But, I honestly don't think there's any comparison other than mundane details.

[rox63]

32. I said exactly the same thing when I saw him speak at the 2004 convention

I said "I think I just saw the first black president of the US".

[blm]

41. Exactly - Besides, GHWBush WANTED to lose in 92, as he expected to be impeached

after the release of the final BCCI report in Dec 1992.

Fortunately for Poppy his partner in many BCCI dealings, Jackson Stephens, had groomed and bankrolled a young governor of Arkansas and underwrote his primary campaign - Poppy Bush could leave without worry that his many illegal operations of BCCI and the outstanding matters in IranContra and Iraqgate would be fully exposed.

[cottonseed]

29. This was nice to read over. Thanks.

[depakid]

33. Trouble is there's no Perot alongside to attack McCain- and receive attacks

and so (partially thanks to Clinton) both barrels of a much stronger far right corporate media and a much louder echo chamber will be bearing down on him if he gets the nomination....

[vssmith]

34. I hope his Presidency follows a different track--a liberal one

[cloudythescribbler]

35. slight fact error: Clinton DIDN'T deliver keynote in 88; he was an introducer & SPOKE for 45 mins

And the audience famously applauded when he said "and in conclusion ..."

Obama had a somewhat more auspicious entry into the national limelight

[Bullet1987]

36. Both are coming off scandal-ridden administrations...

[rug]

37. Clinton governed a state for 12 years. Obama sat in the Senate for 2.

[yourguide]

39. Oh I guess his time in the Illinois senate was essentially

an internship?

[Az_lefty]

40. Bill clinton was the "fairy tale" candidate...

He eeked out in a three way race and really shocked a lot of Americans when GHWB was defeated.