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Bill Clinton On Anti-Trade, Anti-Immigration Politics

12 Apr 2008 03:38 pm

A variant of Obama's variant of Thomas Frank's argument. More proof that some of what Obama said is well within the grooves of mainline Democratic thought these days.

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Comments (10)

hillary clinton is full of it. i hope this blows up in her face.

Posted by justin | April 12, 2008 3:44 PM

hillary clinton is full of it. i hope this blows up in her face.

Posted by justin | April 12, 2008 3:45 PM

boom.

Posted by jesse | April 12, 2008 3:52 PM

I think you all in the elite media should stop vouching for Obama. This is a problem for Obama and you in the media should admit it. Bill is not saying that these people are "bitter" and "clinging" to their guns and religion as a byproduct out of frustration out of lack of jobs.

Posted by American | April 12, 2008 3:55 PM

sorry american. This is NOT a problem at all. If it were an issue it would still not be a problem. People will think and see this will work in his favour. As for the bosnia thing and her tall tales about that well that will and is a problem. no distractions from that.

Posted by am | April 12, 2008 4:03 PM

Et tu, quoque!

The Atlantic continues to have no one around who understands imm.-related issues. I'm starting to almost feel embarrassed for them. Almost.

First, what Bubba says is far different from Obama's remarks.

Second, Bubba is being misleading, but not to the extent that Obama was. The GOP isn't "hardline against immigration". For over four years I've been discussing how Bush is practically a cheerleader for IllegalImmigration; if I can do it, then surely the Atlantic could find at least one person who's been following along.

There's certainly a wide gap between the elites of both parties and the non-elites on both trade and imm., and the financial ties between top Dems and trade agreements and the fact that Obama supports a Bush trade scheme show that the top Dems are quite supportive of "free" trade. At the most, they want to fluff up the pillows a bit.

For an example of a "man of the people" doing a sales job on "free" trade and globalism, see this:

youtube.com/watch?v=YRObrQggC9U

Third, there are different types of immigration, and Ambinder might consider finding someone who can explain the types, levels, etc. involved. Different types and levels might be supported or opposed by different people for different reasons.

Posted by TLB | April 12, 2008 4:14 PM

Reporting from Pennsylvania, (posted elsewhere) this kurfuffle is not sticking with the audience, even as it is being fanned by opponents of Obama. Without any clear video and only scratchy audio existing, it can't resonate very well for the 24/7 news cycle the media used against Wright's collected remarks over the course of 30 years. We are left with reading what Obama said, and....guess what....it ain't half bad!

Posted by Rita | April 12, 2008 11:19 PM

The republicans aren't hard lined against immigration? What about Buchanan and Tancredo that want to round everyone up and send them back to Mexico or put them all in prison? That's not hard lined? As Senator Obama has pointed out, to do that, round up approximately 12 million illegal immigrants, would take a huge amount of money, not to mention how it would tie up law enforcement and keep them from doing their regular jobs, patrolling the streets, investigating crimes, etc. How would we pay for this?

What Senator Obama said is very close to what Bill Clinton told Charlie Rose. I think this is when he also said Barack Obama would be a "roll of the dice". Hillary better watch who she calls elitist. She's the one with 109 million dollars and 2 big homes. John McCain has 10 homes and he doesn't even know there's a problem with the economy. A loss of all of these manufacturing jobs has to do with NAFTA and who signed the NAFTA legislation? There you go, an elitist.

Posted by Carolyn Grace | April 12, 2008 11:25 PM

I heard Bill Clinton make statements like this several times during the 2004 election -- talking about Gods, Guns, and Gays. They shouldn't be hard to find.

Posted by BG | April 13, 2008 1:56 PM

I heard Bill Clinton make statements like this several times during the 2004 election -- talking about Gods, Guns, and Gays. They shouldn't be hard to find.

Posted by BG | April 13, 2008 1:56 PM