Hillary v. Bill: Tale of the Tape

As I've written before, I'm perfectly content to let my Democratic cohort East of the Rockies deliver the Party nominee to me. I'll be happy with Hillary or Bernie and what I see as the classic choice between the pragmatist and the visionary…the incrementalist and the revolutionary. It's as old as politics. However, fresh attacks on Hillary have raised the vestige of chivalry in me, and I feel compelled to offer a few more words on her behalf. The attacks came from Rand Paul at the Republican debate last night and Charles Blow in the New York Times yesterday. Paul and Blow differ racially and politically, but they share something overriding in common that I think is at the root of more widespread disdain for Hillary. 

In the debate, Paul said of Hillary:

I don't think she's responsible for his behavior. But I do think that her position as promoting women's rights and fairness to women in the workplace, that if what Bill Clinton did any CEO in our country did with an intern, with a 22-year- old, 21-year-old intern in their office, they would be fired. They would never be hired again. Fired, never hired again and probably shunned in their community. And the thing is, she can't be a champion of women's rights at the same time she's got this that is always lurking out there, this type of behavior. 

In his column, Blow, who compared Sanders as a "cool uncle" to Hillary as a "cold aunt", wrote this:

At the town hall, Clinton’s back was against the wall, and she performed brilliantly. Indeed, that seems to be when she gives her best performances — when her back is against the wall. But she is often in that position because of her own doing, her own lapses in judgment, her own miscalculations. It is an odd, cyclical exercise to continue to praise her for climbing out of holes she digs for herself. There almost seems to be a self-destructive, self-defeating impulse at play, a need to be perpetually down so that she can perpetually fight her way back up, a sort of crisis dependency.

Without digging down into all that's wrong with each of those statements, let me just address the bigger nonsense head-on: both of these guys are essentially blaming Hillary for what have for the most part been Bill's issues that either he brought on himself or were brought on by his political enemies. She has always been the adult in their relationship and she has always paid the heavier price for being so…and at the risk of psychoanalyzing a mass of people I have no business psychoanalyzing, I'd dare to suggest that a lot of people have transferred their disapproval of specific things Bill has done to general disapproval of Hillary. And since I'm already in over my head here, I'd say there's one very big reason for this …and to find out what it is, let's now go to the tale of the tape...  



Hillary Tale of the Tape Bill Put personal ambitions on hold, first to become an advocate for children and next to support her husband Early career Pursued personal ambitions from the get-go
Goldwater Campaign (though just a teenager and though she later campaigned for McGovern, this is the root of the Republican Lite smear)

Guilt by Association
Democratic Leadership Council—group dedicated to the neutering of the Democratic Party and foundation of his Presidency Children’s Defense FundBoard of The New World Foundation
Board of Legal ServicesADA 90 percent liberal voting record as senator Liberal bona fides “The era of big government is over”
Flat, Midwestern directness.
Vocal quality
Drips with Southern seductive smarm
Masterly display of events, policies and global context in front of hostile House Benghazi Committee for 11 hours
Crucible
Embarrassing display of parsing in 2 and 1/2 hour grand jury testimony raising serious questions about what the meaning of is is and whether a blow job is sex
None known (though Marco Rubio claims she lied to the families of the Benghazi victims, none of the 8 investigations into Benghazi have substantiated this)
Outright lie
“I did not have sex with that woman.”
“I’ve heard from quite a few people my age that they think you’re dishonest, but I’d like to hear from you on why you feel the enthusiasm isn’t there.” (Note this was after she was cleared of any wrongdoing in the Whitewater affair, the Benghazi attack, and remains guilty of little more than carelessness in the email server “scandal”)


Debate question posed by cheeky young voter

“Boxers or briefs?” (Note this was after his Gennifer Flowers affair was exposed) Hilldebeast Nicknames Big Dawg,
Polarizing figure
Reputation
Best politician of our time
“You got the State Department on board. You convinced the president, you overcame the objections of Vice President Biden and Secretary of Defense Gates, the National Security Council. And you had another obstacle then, and that was the United Nations. And you were able to persuade the Russians, of all things, to abstain, and had you not been successful in arguing that abstention, the Security Council Resolution 1973 wouldn't have passed because the Russians had a veto. So you overcame that obstacle as well, right? Isn't that right?… There was another obstacle that you overcame and that was the Arabs themselves. Jake Sullivan sent you an e-mail, and he said this, "I think you should call. It will be a painful 10 minutes. But you will be the one who delivered Arab support." … So to put this in totality, you were able to overcome opposition within the State Department. You were able to persuade the president. You were able to persuade the United Nations and the international community. You made the call to the Arabs and brought them home. You saw it. You drove it. You articulated it. And you persuaded people.” --Rep Peter Roskam of Illinois
Republican endorsement
“Frankly, after seven years of Obama, a lot of Republicans would take Bill Clinton back, warts and all, just because at least he understood how to govern.”—Mike Huckabee
52.3 % unfavorable; 43.5% favorable
Polls
Bill was 10 points more popular than Hillary with whites and 11 points more popular with men
Female Gender Male