Live from Omaha, it’s Bill Clinton

The Clinton death march back to the White House continues. Appearing in advance of the Nebraska caucuses today, Bill Clinton campaigned yesterday on behalf of Madam Hillary in Omaha and Lincoln. The Clinton death march back to the White House continues. The Omaha World-Herald reports here. Clinton also campaigned in Lincoln. The Lincoln Journal Star report is here. Omaha attorney David Begley reports from Omaha below. I have taken the liberty of adding a brief editorial note:

Nebraska must matter if former President Bill Clinton made a last-minute appearance in Omaha yesterday. Senator Bernie Sanders appeared in Lincoln on Thursday and drew a crowd of 2,500. The amount of Sanders’ support in Nebraska is not apparent other than the fact that the head of the anti-Keystone XL group Bold Nebraska endorsed Bernie.

The event was held at a music venue in the now revitalized and hip Benson neighborhood. To give readers some context, Benson is one-half mile from Warren Buffett’s grade school, on the same street I lived for a decade. It is also just up the street from where Justice Thomas married my law school classmate Ginni Lamp.

This was my second time around seeing him in person. My general impression this time was that he presents himself as a genial, very thin, grey-haired grandfather who just happens to be the impeached former president and current leader of a corrupt global foundation. He gave the crowd some personal details. He first met Hillary Rodham 45 years ago this month. She also twice (!) rejected his marriage proposal. Think about how different history would be if he had not proposed a third time.

I saw Bill Clinton before the Iowa caucuses and my report is here. His pitch to Nebraska voters was that his wife is “a change maker” who gets things done. Hillary also “sees everyone” and she will put “everyone in the picture.” We need to work together, as John Kasich says.

He discussed domestic agenda items. Free college. Refinanced student debt. Big infrastructure spending which now apparently includes all new water pipes across the country, given the avoidable errors in Flint, Michigan. Dodd-Frank is a great piece of reform legislation other than the fact that community banks should not now be subject to it and non-bank financials are currently exempt. Hedge funds would be regulated in a Hillary Clinton administration but I imagine her son-in-law’s hedge fund would be exempt.

In Madam Hillary’s regime companies that leave the United States for corporate tax inversions would be subject to an exit tax, but wouldn’t it be smarter to reduce all corporate taxes so companies wouldn’t want to leave in the first place?

Climate change was identified as the way “we can all make a fortune.” By this he apparently meant the tax subsidies to his soon to be rich friends who supply the infrastructure of the renewables industry. In an odd note, the wind and solar installations will be placed on Indian reservations. There must be some kind of deal going on there.

Clinton conceded that the electorate was angry. But it is not Obama’s fault! According to Bill it takes a least ten years to recover from the recession we had. With Madam Hillary in charge, incomes will go up and all dreams will come true.

The only mention of foreign policy was that there was apparently some kind of agreement wherein it was decided that there would be no future big land wars in the Middle East and that our only method in attacking our enemies would be via special forces in conjunction with the vaunted armies of our Middle East allies.

The crowd was enthusiastic but not like the rowdy GOP crowd in Detroit on Thursday. When the former president gave an impassioned plea of “we can do this,” it flopped.

His only reference to the GOP debate was that it reached “new heights of whatever.”

SCOTT adds this editorial note to Dave’s report: Did Clinton mention his own support for repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act during his presidency? I don’t think he did. Did he mention his own support for the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, exempting credit-default swaps from regulation? I don’t think he did. Did he mention his administration’s use of the Community Reinvestment Act to pressure banks to make bad loans? I don’t think he did. Did he mention his effort to reduce mortgage lending standards through HUD’s 1994 National Homeownership Strategy, published at his request? I don’t think he did. To the extent history conflicts with current Democratic Party talking points and articles of faith, history is not his bag. He won’t stop thinking about the future.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses