Hating Bill Clinton was thought to have been an obsession of the right, but as I have been tracking for a while, the left has been turning against him for a long time now.
And over the transom from Princeton University Press comes the galleys to a forthcoming book, A Fabulous Failure: The Clinton Presidency and the Transformation of American Capitalism, written by two professors who lean to the left (is it really necessary to say that?).
From the introduction:
Today, however, Clinton’s presidency wins little respect. Few liberals want to return the Democratic Party to that era because so many see his presidency as a betrayal of the progressivism that was once the hallmark of the New Deal and the Great Society. Bill Clinton was the first Democratic president since FDR to win two consecutive terms, but that accomplishment seems merely a product of his accommodation to an ideology that privileged trade liberalization, financial deregulation, and privatization of government services, while tolerating the growth of class inequalities. President Clinton has been labeled “the Democratic Eisenhower,” the popular leader of a political party whose electoral success was predicated upon a wholesale accommodation to the ideology of its op-ponents. Clinton’s 1996 declaration that “the era of big government is over” seemingly ratified Reaganite conservatism and in the process trans-formed Republican politics and policy into a hegemonic ethos that liberated global finance and eviscerated Keynesian liberalism. . .
The Guardian’s George Monbiot concluded his story on the rise of neoliberalism by asserting, “The man who sank Hillary Clinton’s bid for the presidency was not Donald Trump. It was her husband.”
Nothing so clearly ratifies the Democratic Party’s sharp lurch to the left in recent years than this kind of revisionism that reviles the Clintons. I fully expect that sooner or later leftists will openly express regret that Clinton wasn’t convicted in his impeachment as it would have paved the way for the certifiably cuckoo Al Gore to become president.
Finally—a leftist book that is going to be fun to read! Pass the popcorn.
Miranda Devine buries revelations extracted from Hunter Biden’s laptop inside today’s New York Post column ostensibly devoted to public opinion on the Biden classified documents matter. Devine observes that “[t]here are several clues on the laptop that Hunter may have been selling classified information to his foreign paymasters” and cites the “uncharacteristically cogent email about Ukraine written by Hunter Biden in 2014…” I wrote about Devine’s discovery of the “uncharacteristically cogent email” last week in “Getting there.”
Devine follows up in her column today. She reports that “there’s more where that came from” — i.e., from the laptop:
For instance, documents on the laptop from 2011 show that Hunter offered to sell intelligence on Russian oligarchs to the US aluminum firm Alcoa Inc. for $55,000.
In internal discussions over Hunter’s proposal, a senior executive at Alcoa suggested the information was valuable because it “would not otherwise be on Government Affairs team’s radar.”
As I previously reported, Hunter offered to “provide Alcoa with statistical analysis of political and corporate risks, elite networks associated with Oleg Deripaska (OD), Russian CEO of Basic Element company and United company RUSAL.”
Alcoa had just signed a metal supply agreement with RUSAL.
Hunter promised to provide a “list of elites of similar rank in Russia, map of OD’s [Deripaska’s] networks based on frequency of interaction with selected elites and countries.”
In an email to Daniel Cruise, Alcoa’s then-vice president of government and public affairs, on June 3, 2011, Hunter offered, “a little better sense of the product by attaching some of the raw data that is produced through the elite mapping procedure.”
Five days later, Cruise’s colleague at Alcoa, senior analyst Pei Cheng, wrote: “I don’t believe the data analysis is worth the full $55,000. I think the most valuable piece for us would be the list of Russian elites connected to OD [Deripaska] that would not otherwise be on Government Affairs team’s radar, including various Russian Committee Heads, Union leaders or Ministers.”
How Hunter, 52, a raging drug addict with a voracious appetite for cash during much of his father’s vice-presidency, got access to classified information, is a matter of national concern.
It would be easy to overlook Devine’s discussion of the 2021 documents in Hunter Biden’s laptop, as the mainstream media undoubtedly will. I wanted to bring it to the attention of readers who have been following our coverage of the Biden classified documents matter.
When it comes to the Biden document scandal, Fox News, as the opposition media, should not be banging the same gong that the leftist media outlets are striking with fervor. And yet it is. That’s not good news.
President Biden’s days as a politician are numbered, not because some confidential documents were ‘discovered’ in suspicious circumstances, but due to the “Big Picture.” If you want to understand what is going on, start with the result the leftist globalists desire and work back to the event at hand. Right now, they want Biden out because he no longer serves their goals.
For the four years after 2016, Democrats failed to promote anyone who could beat Trump. By 2020, they had no qualified (meaning ‘able to win’) candidates in the wings. They were stuck nominating and sheltering Biden solely to defeat Trump, boosting him in the primaries and through to his victory. Other acts towards Trump’s permanent defeat were the Russia hoax, the two sham “impeachments,” the January 6 committee, and the Mar-a-Lago raid.
Biden, though, is imperfect, and Democrats must move Biden out. He is no longer needed; his purpose is fulfilled. But how to do it?
Whoever ends up completing Biden’s term is the “incumbent” in the 2024 election. Dems understand that it cannot be Kamala for obvious reasons. Wait and see how creative the pressure will be on her to resign.
But moving Biden out is fraught with trouble. If just a fraction of the allegations about Biden are true, he can be impeached on many fronts. The problem is that other people are involved in those matters. Those crimes cannot be used without damaging some players in the Deep State, the party, or the intelligence services, and possibly exposing just what they have been doing.
So you must destroy Joe with a solo act that touches no one; namely, illegally possessing classified documents. Think about it—Biden’s lawyers found the first batch of documents and turned their own client in! Then, like a child’s game of Whack-A-Mole, documents keep popping up, some from the same places in which previous documents were found! With the deluge of new ‘finds’ swatting him almost daily, Joe must feel a bit like Tippi Hedren in Hitchcock’s The Birds, just wishing it would all stop.
The leftist media have picked up this ball and, instead of defending Biden, as is their wont, are ensuring Biden’s downfall. This should be a major clue for those paying attention.
Oddly, Fox News, which should be the political opinion opposition, dutifully reports each of these new findings with breathless glee as if electricity were just discovered.
What Fox is doing makes no sense because Joe is toast. There is no nullification benefit for the opposition to making him ‘toastier.’ The left is already doing the job of removing him from office. Nevertheless, Fox News is playing the role of the Democrats’ huckleberry. (If you’re wondering, the phrase “I’m your Huckleberry” means “I’m your guy/gal, and I understand your goals, and I’m here to help.”). Why is it doing this?
It’s good (important, even) that Fox reports the facts about the documents. However, the amount of time devoted to focusing on the document issue means Fox is amplifying a story that can only support the Democrat agenda. And lets them avoid having to delve into the true story of the power of the leftist globalist agenda that drives it.
In that agenda, we are seeing a slow-motion coup of a sitting presidency so that those pulling the strings can manipulate their desired candidate into office in 2024 while not harming any of their players. That is the big story and is a subset of the global ‘Big Picture.’
We should not be gleeful that Biden is being taken down but should be alarmed that our entire system is showing there really is a “man behind the curtain,” as Dorothy Gale learned in Oz. What’s happening behind the curtain is not a friend to America or to freedom. That is the story.
While this action is expected from the ‘usual suspects’ in media, it indicates that Fox News is going soft on its role of being opposition media. This trend got a noticeable start in April 2022, when the station stopped interviewing Trump.
Fox’s embrace of the mainstream narrative does not bode well for America, and that’s true whether Fox is on board with or afraid of the agenda. We’re in trouble if Fox abandons its long-standing role as a major media outlet pushing back against globalism, and attacks on the constitution, family, and faith.
“The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.”
Lewis Dovland is the nom de guerre of a passionate observer of America’s future direction with a focus on exposing the “Big Picture” end goals of the progressive Marxist movement and how we can prevail. Email at Lewis.Dovland@gmail.com.
“Donald Trump has officially launched his 2024 presidential campaign. He is entitled to take a shot at another term, but his country and his party would be far better served if, for once, he put their interests ahead of his own ego. Given his history, though, we shouldn’t be surprised.
Charles Gasparino’s piece in the New York Post is headlined: “Donors slow as the realization hits that Trump can’t beat feeble Joe Biden.”
[B]ased on my random polling of [Republican donors] in recent weeks, they all have something in common: They don’t want Donald Trump to run for president in 2024. They say this not out of pure disdain. They loved Trump’s policies, the low taxes, fewer regulations and his anti-wokeism. They loved Trump’s willingness to fight.
Yet they fear, intensely, that even a feeble leader like Joe Biden, cowed by the left of his party on every policy matter, will win in 2024, and win easily if Trump is the nominee.
I think any plausible Republican other than Trump would beat Biden in 2024, but Trump would almost certainly lose. It is hard to overstate the level of antipathy toward Trump among millions who otherwise are Republican or swing voters.
[Biden’s] approval ratings suck. And yet the Dems kicked some real ass [in 2022], adding to their Senate majority and almost keeping the House. The GOP disaster was then capped off by the circus that surrounded the selection of Kevin McCarthy as the next speaker.
Is this Donald Trump’s fault? The GOP donor class thinks so because while he remains powerful with a lot of GOP voters, he’s a supremely flawed national leader, as every election since he won the presidency in 2016 shows.
That is an important point. With Trump seen as the party’s leader, the GOP did poorly in 2018, 2020 and 2022. I am not sure what more it will take for Trump’s die-hard partisans to realize that it is time for new leadership.
Based on my own conversations with Republican donors, fewer than one in ten want Trump to run again. But that bridge has been crossed. Which raises the question: does Trump need donors? He has plenty of money, although I don’t think he has spent much of it on his own or anyone else’s campaigns. He also will do well with grass roots fundraising. But how badly can he afford to be out-spent by the Democrats if he gets the nomination?
I think money in politics is generally overrated, but we can’t ignore the fact that the Democrats are rolling in it. Republicans are routinely out-spent across the country, in my state by as much as ten to one. I don’t think Trump can beat Biden in any event–he lost in 2020 and has done nothing to improve his standing since then–but if many donors sit on the sidelines, the election could be a catastrophe, for the Republican Party and for America.” …………
WHERE IS THE HINDERAKER EVIDENCE TO HIS BLAB AGAINST TRUMP AS PRESIDENT?
Note from Glenn regarding America’s President Donald J. Trump as picked on by Republican John Hinderaker at Power Line. Mr. Hinderaker is a Conservative and usually exercises truth and common sense as a writer. However, he seems to be a registered liar when his gossip utters ugly this and that whenever he is referring to President Donald Trump……the person perhaps, but not the President.
Why do you preach gossip regarding President Donald J. Trump, not evidence of Presidential evil?
I have followed CLOSELY Presidents since Harry S. Truman…I came from a Republican family and remained so, in the general, for I taught Social Studies in high school along with Russian for more than ten years….back when TRUTH WAS CONSIDERED ESSENTIAL TO TEACHING TO THE BETTERMENT OF AMERICA! John Kennedy, regardless of his personal enjoyments, WAS AN OUTSTANDING AMERICAN AS PRESIDENT WHEN IN THE WHITE HOUSE.
President Trump managed a number of social shadows while he was running around in his New Jersey business efforts with women which ruined his marriage, the mother of his children at the time. I remember well when Donald Trump became candidate as a Republican he had a good chance of beating the leftist Dems’ newsprint that runs America’s papers.
Is our American voter too ignorant or fascist to remember the evil our fascistic Nancy Pelosi Dems falsely caused this President during his tenure AS PRESIDENT?…..DO FASCIST DEMS REMEMBER THEIR BURNINGS IN WASHINGTON D.C. VERY CLOSE TO THE WHITE HOUSE? And, there is a lot more of fascist threats and burnings attacking innocent PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP!
What’s your angst regarding President Donald J. Trump, John Hinderaker? I’ve been to the USSR on two occasions when I used to speak fluently….for I taught Russian in high school for twelve years. (No! I wasn’t a Communist, John! …but I did vote for John F. Kennedy when he had his chance…..my only DEM…but a good one!
Please, John Hinderaker, let me know what causes the Trump tears near your mouth when he was President! ghr
MN Prager Discussion Group 