Bill's Excellent Adventure - Refers to Hillary as "Whac-a-Mole"

[K Gardner]

I swear, another post I hadn't planned to do today. Because you see, I've really just had it with the Clintons and their Campaign. Yet, as many have said, it's like a horrible car crash - you want to look away, but you just cannot. So I've been looking through the West Virginia News, checking to see how Bill's Jaunt through the Appalachian Regions of Madison, Williamson, Wayne and Ripley went yesterday. Most of the reviews were typical of the fawning coverage a beloved ex-President would get in small town America. I've found few references (yet) to the types of divisive and inflammatory comments he made earlier in the week. No reports of his temper flaring again. His speeches contain a healthy dose of Coal Talk and even healthier doses of "she can still win if enough of you vote for her". But among the articles I did run across this GEM of a quote. And as the campaigning will soon come to an end, I thought it might be the last time to share a little bit of Bill !



The Designated Ambassador to Rural America

WAYNE (AP) -- Hillary Rodham Clinton is counting on a victory in West Virginia, and it's her husband's job to run up the score.

Former President Bill Clinton traveled much of the state Thursday and today, hoping to inspire voters in out-of-the-way places like Sutton, Fayetteville and Williamson to turn out in large enough numbers to silence some of the national speculation that his wife's bid for the Democratic nomination is essentially finished. The former president may be the campaign's best chance of scoring a big win in West Virginia. His popularity remains potent in the parts of West Virginia he visited.

Along U.S. 52 in Mingo and Wayne counties, crowds of schoolchildren and residents lined the road to wave flags and cheer as Clinton's motorcade passed.

"I'm sort of the designated ambassador to rural America,'' he joked to a crowd at Wayne High School.

Clinton also praised his wife's ability to fight back.

"She just comes up like that Whac-A-Mole machine,'' he said referring to her victories in Ohio, Texas and Indiana. "All the commentary class keeps saying 'I just whacked that mole. How does she keep coming up?'"



Speaking to an enthusiastic crowd earlier at the Madison Fire Department, Clinton reiterated that large turnouts in West Virginia and Kentucky are essential to his wife's chances of winning. "She can win the popular vote, she's clearly the most electable according to all the national polls,'' he said. "Between now and August the superdelegates are going to have to do a lot of thinking if they want to win.''

Some people who turned out to hear Clinton said they still think his wife will be the nominee. "If she takes West Virginia, Kentucky and Oregon, she still stands a good chance with the delegates,'' Inas Evans said at an afternoon campaign stop by the former president in Evans' hometown of Williamson. "And we just have to pray that the good Lord sees fit to give her to us as a leader.''

The Clinton campaign is hoping that West Virginia -- a state rich in the white, older, working-class voters who have doggedly supported her -- will provide a lift after the damaging results of Tuesday's primaries, in which she lost North Carolina and won Indiana by too small a margin to derail rival Barack Obama's bid for the nomination.

At the Williamson stop, fliers were distributed to the crowd urging supporters to get out the vote. The fliers asked voters not only to vote early, but also to spread the word about their candidate by making phone calls, going door to door, waving signs and helping with campaign events. Speaking in gymnasiums and fairgrounds in rural towns, Bill Clinton returned repeatedly to the words "people like you and places like this'' as the keys that could help his wife stop Obama's momentum.

With Obama planning to visit the Mountain State on Monday, his supporters were doing much of the same. On Thursday, the campaign sent Max Kennedy, son of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, to Huntington and Pittsburgh Steelers' owner Dan Rooney to Wheeling and Weirton.

Obama's convincing lead in delegates and the popular vote is showing signs of dispiriting even some of Clinton's supporters. Jean Miller of Union came out in a downpour Thursday to see the former president speak in Fairlea, and although she proudly wore a Hillary Clinton sticker, she doesn't have much hope for her candidate's success. "The way it is now, with the primaries that are left, she still won't have enough delegates,'' Miller said. "She can't win, and sometimes I think it's hurting our party.'' Miller said the longer the Democratic race continues, the better it is for the presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.

<snip>

God love you, Bill. And I mean that. You've worked your heart out. Maybe you're trying to make up for the sins of the past, but God knows and I know you have a good heart. Time to pack it in.. and I believe you know this. There is work left for you to do in this country. Time to heal the party you love.. please.

[anonymous171]

1. Bill is the only reason she's getting a large part of the "white working class" vote

Without him, she's toast.

[hisownpetard]

2. Why is his face so beet-red lately? (It can't be from embarrassment, or it would've been red now

for months). I first noticed it the night of the Indiana primary. Looks like he had his head in the oven
at 450 degrees for 30 minutes.

[anigbrowl]

9. Partly blood pressure, but a lot of cameras over-emphasise reds

It's an issue for digital cameras because you have to kind of pump up the signal strength to get strong reds and it can unbalance the color intensity in low light. look at that shot and see how bright his tie is as well, and the red lettering on someone's jacket to the side.

[hisownpetard]

13. I don't know how to post a picture here, but if you saw him on stage in Indiana last Tues.,

Hillary and Chelsea's skin tones were normal, but Bill's face looked like he had 110 fever, it was so red.

[K Gardner]

14. I noticed that, thought it was maybe emotion, but today's pics really emphasize it. I

think Bill needs a long vacation.. a well-deserved one !

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. ABC news: Bill Clinton Does it Again

Per ABC News' Sarah Amos, this is what the 42nd president of the United States said Friday in Ripley, W.Va.:

"Hillary is in this race because of people like you and places like this and no matter what they say," Clinton said. "And no matter how much fun they make of your support of her and the fact that working people all over America have stuck with her, she thinks you're as smart as they are. She thinks you've got as much right to have your say as anybody else. And, you know, they make a lot of fun of me because I like to campaign in places like this, they say I have been exiled to rural America, as if that was a problem. I don't know about you, but I'd rather be here than listening to that stuff I have to hear on television, I'd rather be with you. There is a simple reason: You need a president a lot more than those people telling you not to vote for her."

In Madison, W.Va.:

"It is very interesting, from the very beginning of this race there has been a sharp divide in the vote -- the people who need a president, who need to turn the economy around, who need to restore the middle class, who need to give poor people a chance to work their way into the middle class, who need to give our children a better future, who need to restore our standing in the world and the war in Iraq, but do it in a way that rebuilds our military and stands up for America's security and standing around the world -- they have been for her from the get-go."

And on and on... Ginning up the resentments and the class divide (and maybe other divisions). ... His message to these voters: Obama and the media are laughing at you and think you're stupid!!!

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/05/bill-clintons-m.html

[K Gardner]

5. Good post.. yes, its the same in town after town.

[emilyg]

4. Next time

trust your instinct - don't post.

[K Gardner]

6. Next time - pick a winning candidate.

[mystieus]

7. lol, i'm sorry

[K Gardner]

8. I know.. I was sitting here with tears running down my face when I read this, I was

laughing so hard. At first I thought it was a small town paper typo, then I saw the AP byline.. gahh !!

[Catherina]

10. Rec'd for your last sentence

He could have found a better analogy, like Timex takes a licking & keeps on ticking or used the energizer bunny. Bill, shut up please. Let her go with some dignity. Let it go with some dignity please.

[hisownpetard]

11. I think it's a typo, K - it was the day after she wore her green pantsuit, and he actually said

"GUAC-a-mole."


:hi:

[K Gardner]

12. ROFL !!

[Berry Cool]

15. "...we just have to pray that the good Lord sees fit to give her to us as a leader.''

You know, when people said this about Bush--that his being placed over us as our President was the result of divine intervention--it made us want to upchuck.

Now these people want the same for Hillary?

Or do they just figure that a heavenly miracle is the only chance she's got?

[K Gardner]

16. Yeah, kinda cringed when I saw that.