An overcast sky threatened rain as my daughter Leah and I walked briskly the half mile or so from our parking place at the Centre College Campus to 424 Maple Avenue, the home of Greg and Melissa Caudill, and the site of Bill Clinton’s appearance in our little town of Danville, KY. We were hoping that the surrounding streets being cordoned off, meaning people would have to walk some distance, and the impending rain, would not adversely affect attendance at President Clinton’s front porch gathering.

It was raining, heavily at times, as my family and I made the 1 1/2 hr. drive to John Hardin High School in Elizabethtown, KY, to hear Bill Clinton speak on behalf of his wife, Hillary. During the drive, I thought about all the ups and downs of this campaign, the array of forces aligned against Hillary, where the race is now, and Hillary’s remarkable determination through it all. Any worries I had about Kentuckians’ enthusiasm for Hillary, because of the media’s continual reporting of her purported demise, were immediately dispelled upon entering the gymnasium.

Marinerfan posted this on the GD yesterday and I agree with her that it needed to be blogged.

Hopefully Mr. Watson won't mind if I post the whole piece minus his updates.

Obama's Sad Victory

President Clinton takes on the media in Bill Clinton Faults Press.

He makes a similar point in Obama's Denial For Praising Ronald Reagan.

Clearly, it is the media that really cares about political in-fighting. It's relatively easy for them to hype such stories, rather than taking any in-depth look at real issues and where the candidates differ on them.

Just for the record:

At the risk of defending Obama, I don't think that he was praising anything Reagan did.  He simply pointed out that the Reagan era marked a turning point in American politics and that neither the Nixon nor Clinton era made a similar impact.  That's inarguable, in my opinion.  That is NOT to say that the new direction was good or bad, simply that it was important.

Here we go again.

Bill Clinton very recently made some very good points concerning the upcoming Nevada caucuses in an encounter with a reporter. Those were:

1. He had nothing to do with the lawsuit.

2. The law does give casino workers an opportunity to vote which is not extended to others who must work on Saturdays.

3. The law has the effect of making the vote of a casino worker worth 5 times the vote of other voters.

4. It's likely that many of those who voted for this new law were not aware of points 2 and 3 when they voted for it.

For several years, I featured a 1998 speech by Bill Clinton to commemorate Martin Luther King Day. In 2005, I wrote this, and in the spirit of Democratic unity I'll humbly offer it up today on the occasion of King's real birthday in the hopes that it might remind us a little bit of who we are:

The Heart Of The Democratic Party

Testvet has a fabulous first hand account over at dKos on meeting with President Bill Clinton yesterday.

I was invited to meet with President Clinton due to my participation in the Steering Committee for Military & Veterans for Hillary on December 17, 2007.

snip

....they wanted the "political types" seperated from the veterans that the President was coming to meet and Thank them for their service to the nation.

CrossKosed from: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/11/5/15241/9575

Today (Sunday) I will be touring in the district with General Wesley Clark and tomorrow (Monday) President Bill Clinton and Senator Max Cleland will be here.

While it may be hard to fathom, we are now 48 hours away from our last best chance to save this Nation that we call the United States of America.

48 hours to save it from the leadership of one political party that would spend our children and grandchildren into economic ruin.
48 hours to save our Nation from power hungry leaders who would do anything to stay in power.
48 hours to save our Nation from officials who would federalize each and every classroom and wipe out two centuries of local control of schools all because they see public education as a failed proposition. Instead of solving the problem they only make it worse.
48 hours to save our fellow Americans from a Government that would give Billions in tax rebates to the large oil companies while those same companies are reaping the largest profits in the history of the United States, and all in the name of short term quarterly stock reports instead of long term national wealth.
48 hours to save our Nation from a government that would sell out the very people that they are charged with protecting by exporting our manufacturing base overseas with no care about the consequences. And, finally, we have
48 hours to save our Nation from a government that would involve us in an endless war of occupation and attrition and then throw a continuous stream of Madison Avenue slogans at us to try and divert attention from their failures.

We are at a crossroads and only our phone calls, door to door Get-Out-the-Vote election district walking, and last minute financing will make the difference. We are at a crossroads and only we can direct which direction we will go. Here in the 29th Congressional District we have the luxury of old fashioned lever machines and we will be watching like a hawk at the polls. And here on the ground we are working around the clock to get out the Army of folks whom we will need to motivate and mobilize the voters. But across this Country we will all have a choice to make: Stay the Course or Change the Course. And only we can select which it will be.

We need new leadership that has the fearless backbone to stand and demand the impeachment of the Secretary of Defense because calling for his resignation has not been enough. The President has announced and his Vice President has affirmed that despite what the American people want they will not change their failed policies in Iraq . We must act with strength, vigor and purpose.

We need new leadership that has the fearless backbone to reverse five years of a failed energy policy that panders to a few top oil companies instead of moving forward with bold strokes to realize the dream of true energy independence. The President has failed to fund the very initiatives that he described as his Administration's contribution to that goal. And his Vice President has affirmed two things: One, that the American people have no right to know what secret negotiations created his failed energy policy; And two, that anything other than increased drilling for oil and remaining dependent on fossil fuels is a failure. And he says this despite what the entire scientific community says.

I have been very interested in the Democratic response to the ABC docu-drama, Path to 9/11. It seems to me that we left no stone unturned in our efforts to put an end to the airing of outright lies when it came to the events that are depicted in this made for TV movie. Unfortunately, they fell on deaf ears.....unseeing eyes.

After what transpired due to the public's outpouring of opposition toward the Reagan mini-series awhile back, I felt sure that we could, at the very least, persuade ABC to cut out the scenes in question. Boy, was I wrong! And obviously, I've been wrong about the ability of the Democrats to influence everyday Americans on most everything, lately.