Clinton's best line: "They need a divided America. We don't."

[flpoljunkie]

Excerpt from transcript:

http://www.bouldernews.com/bdc/dc_election/article/0,1713,BDC_11917_3066980,00.html

We Democrats want to build a world and an America of shared responsibilities and shared benefits. We want a world with more global cooperation where we act alone only when we absolutely have to.

We think the role of government should be to give people the tools to create the conditions to make the most of their own lives. And we think everybody should have that chance.

On the other hand, the Republicans in Washington believe that America should be run by the right people — their people — in a world in which America acts unilaterally when we can and cooperates when we have to.

They believe the role of government is to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of those who embrace their economic, political and social views, leaving ordinary citizens to fend for themselves on important matters like health care and retirement security.

Now, since most Americans aren't that far to the right, our friends have to portray us Democrats as simply unacceptable, lacking in strength and values. In other words, they need a divided America.

But we don't.

[jpgray]

1. Tucker's attempt to spin out of it was pretty pathetic

Tried to claim that Clinton had accused all Republicans in the country of needing a divided America, whereas Clinton only refers to those in Washington--the leadership. Of course the genius of the soubdbite is that Tucker just proved his point--in arguing against that line, Tucker had to play up divisions.

[bigwillq]

2. Yes, that line was one of my faves

I also loved his kicker statements about Kerry and leading his vessel through troubled waters.

I loved the "Send me", "Send John Kerry" lines.

Bill as well as the other speakers did a great job of bringing to the public's minds that Kerry will indeed be a strong, powerful leader in nationl security and foreign affairs because of his military service.

[berner59]

3. Watched it this morning....

Wow....he nailed it... Had it taped from MSNBC and the pundits after it fell over each other praising it and even Joe Scarborough said he'd feel better sleeping if JK was pres, knowing he was a courageous leader in Vietnam...huh?? Clinton even got to this guy!!

Joe & Chris Matthews made a big point that Clinton's image of a "captain of the ship" was very powerful...wow...

[dolstein]

4. Agreed -- that was my favorite line too

NT

[derby378]

5. Gotta hand it to him...

That was brilliant, even though Tucker might disagree.

[Brotherjohn]

6. Clinton got hammered for the line "they needed a new enemy, and they...

... chose him.

While a little self-centered (perhaps he should have said "liberals"), he was right on point.

The Republican / Conservative philosophy rests strongly on standing up against an enemy... against uniting in the face of a threat (or has for years as practiced here in the U.S., anyway). That threat was provided in the past by communism. When communism went bust, they had no enemy.

I wrote a poem about this in the early 90s, when conservatives began to rampantly criticize liberals and the Clintons. It made the same point Clinton recently made, and alludes to here: that conservatives/Repubs need an enemy to feel validated. In their collective minds, and in the absence of a real, immediate threat, they morphed Democrats and liberals into that threat. I mean, within a few short years, the language and vitriol directed against Democrats in this country became worse than anything we had ever directed even at Russia!

When Clinton said basically the same thing a few weeks back, I completely understood what he was saying. It's been as plain to me as can be for years.