Thread by @frodofied

1/ Some final words on the topic of William Jefferson Clinton from yours truly.

I don't talk about 'Big Dog' much, for many reasons, the overriding one is b/c quite frankly Hillary Clinton's husband has, as often as not, tended to either overshadow her or weigh her down.

2/ But I am not embarrassed to admit nor will I shy away from the fact that Bill Clinton is very special and very important to me. So very much of what I know about politics and even about life in some respects I learn directly from watching that man in action. It's just true.

3/ In many ways Bill Clinton is my Barack Obama to give some of you younger folks an idea of how important he was to myself & many Democrats at the time.

Though it's true I would eventually hitch my wagon to Hillary, then, at first, first, it was Bill.

4/ Bill Clinton is the first politician that I believed in; he's the first national politician that I worked for; he's the first Presidential Candidate I met...this list could get lengthy. Yes, he's the first of many things for me.

5/ His 1992 campaign is given too little credit for some Innovations that, or if not strictly Innovations, perhaps the reintroduction of utilizing supporters of all ages across the campaign in every capacity you can imagine. It was as inspiring as it was moving to observe.

6/ But it was his belief and trust in people like myself young, hungry, willing to learn and willing to fight and we made up a very large portion of Bill Clinton's Army that year.

And I am not exaggerating, Bill Clinton Believed in Us.

7/ As a volunteer, from the very beginning I was allowed to attend staff meetings. I was asked my opinion and I was listened to. At one time in the whole of that campaign did anyone tell me no that I was not able or I did not belong, not once.

8/ Meeting Bill Clinton, particularly back then, at the height of his charisma, his intellectual verve, & oratorical powers was something that felt like a unique privilege to many, something even his political enemies would later admit to feeling as well.

He was extraordinary.

9/ If there ever existed a more naturally attuned, naturally talented politician in the whole history of American politics I could not name them.

His magnetism was disarming, and often uncomfortable for some.

10/ Oh, and by the way, Bill Clinton is smart. I don't know if you noticed that. He's not just smart though, and it's more than IQ I'm talking about here, he's scary smart. I can't say I cannot ever remember that man ever saying "um."

11/ I've often said that most of what I know about politics I I learned from Bill Clinton or that campaign. That is no exaggeration. On that campaign I learned how campaigns of that size and nature were run from the local level to the state level to the National.

12/ I was a driver in an actual motorcade. One of the highlights of my life is being behind the wheel of a huge black Suburban driving down a completely deserted silent I-94 as we sped toward downtown at 70 miles per hour. It was extraordinary.

13/ I learned about fundraising committees and ihe importance of raising money in the right way from the right people. I was on the steering committees of two fundraisers that year including Chicago's largest which was co-chaired by none other than Hillary Clinton & Tipper Gore.

14/ Again, this list could get long. But some of the most important thing I learned, and I learned them intimately, included both how to and how not to respond to controversy. And that campaign had no shortage of that, of them. Which brings me to the point of this thread.

15/ The 1992 Clinton Gore campaign was a trial by fire introduction to the maelstrom of contemporary political campaigns a feature that would become the dominating force in campaigns from that moment on.

16/ Bill Clinton was an imperfect man. He came with baggage. That was clear from the outset to most everyone. It would become an accepted fact and most everyone that, in some ways, he was as troubled as he was gifted.

17/ At the time, it felt like there were a lot of accusations that we we're being forced to contend with. But there was nothing like the numbers we talk today where dozens of women were coming out against him. That wasn't the case at all.

18/ In fact, in the beginning, it was
an alleged consensual affair that threatened to bring the campaign to it's knees. But even then, at the beginning, with Gennifer Flowers, something felt wrong. And as other accusers came forward that feeling only increased.

19/ It was soon apparent that most the women who came forward during that time were recruited by right-wing organizations who often paid for their legal fees and living expenses. Groups who seemed intent on shaping and rewriting these women's narratives.

20/ Not only were the stories these women told often inconsistent it was clear, particularly in Paula Jones,' cases, that there was a lot of coaching going on. Martin and not Paula Jones and seeing that not only untroubled by some of the accusations she was making,

21/ but often seemed to delight in the attention she gained from making them, which is no real criticism of her, this is the fault of the people responsible for her introduction to the world. These women were being used as political weaponry to bring down Bill Clinton.

22/ So, it is against this backdrop that many opinions about Bill Clinton were formed. It was clear to everyone that Bill Clinton was no saint but he was clearly also not the Paragon of amorality that many on the RW portrayed him to be. As usual the truth was found in the middle

23/ In the end, right or wrong, I personally concluded that Bill Clinton was probably your run-of-the-mill cad, overly flirtatious, and sometimes given to to taking those flirtations too far. But I never got the sense from any single woman that he was ever really more than that.

24/ I know at least some of you are probably chanting to yourself but Juanita Broderick! Juanita Broderick!

And lest I be accused of hypocrisy let me say this: Broderick's off again on again, often changing in detail, accusations are the most troubling levied against Clinton.

25/ But at the same time they're also the most questionable. Broderick has changed her story over and over, most often denying it ever happened, including under oath. It's only when prodded by some right-wing organization whose politics align w/ hers that they seem to resurface

26/ But one thing I find quite telling is the fact that when asked aboui or generally commenting on similar stories told by other women she most often if they're conservatives sides with the accused. Accuses the women of playing politics.

27/. She does this with Trump's accusers. Yes Juanita Broderick believes Donald Trump. I think the reason she mixies determinations is that perhaps she knows a little bit about making accusations for political reasons yet another reason why I've chosen not to believe Broderick.