The return of Bill Clinton, cont’d

We quoted Jay Nordlinger’s comments on Bill Clinton campaigning for Democrats around the country at length here. Jay was disgusted by Clinton’s wayward relationship with the truth in just about his every utterance.
Yesterday Clinton came to Minnesota to speak on behalf of Tarryl Clark, the Democratic challenger to Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s Sixth Congressional District. Long-time observers of Clinton may be less interested in reading what Clinton had to say than in ascertaining whether he ran true to form and hit on Clark.
The Star Tribune doesn’t answer that question, but it does give us a few lowlights from Clinton’s remarks at the union hall in Blaine where he appeared:

Clinton largely focused the Democrats’ record in Congress and argued the party is making progress fixing the economy but needs more time. “I’d like to see [Republicans] get behind a locomotive going 200 miles an hour straight downhill and stop it in 10 seconds. You can’t do that.”
He took few shots directly at Bachmann, except to note she belongs to a Republican Party that has drifted too far right.
“If we could bring back all the great Republicans from the past, every Republican leader from Theodore Roosevelt to Dwight Eisenhower would be voting for [Clark] in this election,” Clinton said. “Her opponent, this crowd in Washington, they make Richard Nixon look like a member of the Students for a Democratic Society.”

Clinton’s quoted use of the train metaphor is a bit off. Who’s driving the train? And what happened to the car, the ditch and the car keys?
You have to wonder if he had his heart in this appearance. Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower would have voted in favor of Clark against Bachmann? That’s an argument that lacks a certain punch, and one wonders how he knows. Is that something Miss Hillary picked up in a seance communing with the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt?
Close readers may note that Clinton omitted Ronald Reagan from his list of great Republicans of the past. Reagan was an even greater Republican than TR or Eisenhower, and he would have voted for Bachmann.
Clinton also omits Richard Nixon from his list of great Republicans of the past, but uses him as a stick with which to beat contemporary Republicans, who supposedly make Nixon look like an SDSer. Buddy, you’re dating yourself.
And can two can play at this game. Let’s take a great Democrat from the past. How about, say, JFK? He makes makes Obama look like Castro.
November 2 can’t come soon enough.

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