On Tuesday night (January 27) as I passed by the TV, I saw Greta Van Susteren introducing a segment near the end of the show called ” The Best of the Rest.”
There they were, former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton laughing it up on Monday in New Orleans at the National Association of Auto Dealers conference. Greta has spent quite a lot of time featuring this duo; you can check out several videos at the “On the Record” site. However, the video I saw has not shown up on the site…buried, I guess.
First, here’s the only report that I can find on the event:
Bush, Clinton offer morale boost for auto dealers at New Orleans conference
by Jen DeGregorio, The Times-Picayune
Tuesday January 27, 2009, 7:18 AMFormer Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton embrace during their address at the National Association of Auto Dealers conference in New Orleans on Monday.
Former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, who were in New Orleans on Monday to speak to members of the National Automobile Dealers Association, tried to assure one of the nation’s most troubled industries that it would survive an economic maelstrom that has swallowed more than 2.5 million jobs in the past year.
But survival will not come without sacrifice, they said. Clinton and Bush evoked the image of Hurricane Katrina to describe the level of perseverance they said will be needed to carry the nation through a recession that has been widely compared with the Great Depression. Citizens must pitch in to help one another as they did after Katrina, when countless volunteers descended upon New Orleans to help rebuild and donated millions of dollars to a relief fund headed by Clinton and Bush, the former presidents said.
SNIP
While Bush and Clinton focused on the economy, they also made time for some banter and shared personal anecdotes about their time in the Oval Office.
Clinton and Bush sat down for a casual chat with outgoing association Chairwoman Annette Sykora, who quizzed them about their victories and regrets in office.
SNIP
Both men sang the praises of President Barack Obama, saying his administration already has set the right tone to weather the economic crisis by encouraging an era of responsibility.
“We are bound together, and divorce is not an option, ” Clinton said.
There’s something missing in this report…the bit that Greta showed.
Greta prefaced the video with a big grin and much enjoyment over what Bush said and added that Clinton had a great quip after that.
I didn’t even hear the Clinton quip because I as so ticked off at what George H. W. Bush decided to deliver to the audience. I was fuming from Bush’s rendition of how he was confronted by women protesters over reproductive issues.
According to Bush, he was irritated when he was in his limo and some women got right up to it waving a sign saying “Stay Out of Our Wombs.” He mused about he couldn’t understand how they even got that close…then wisecracked (sic) “Believe me, that’s one place I wouldn’t want to go”…
Well, the audience ERUPTED in UPROARIOUS LAUGHTER from the audience! I’m assuming the majority of the audience was men. Clinton was laughing, too, and delivered his line. The camera didn’t catch the reaction of Chairwoman Sykora, who was off camera in the video.
As I mentioned, I have no idea what Clinton said, but Greta thought it was very funny and, in fact, thought the whole segment was a laugh riot. Which makes me wonder about Greta. We’ve got a former President mocking women about their intense feelings about controlling their own bodies and she thinks that’s funny?
I guess I should be grateful that she showed it since the newspaper report from The Times-Picayune chose not to report on it. WHY didn’t they?
As for Clinton…I wish I knew what he said. Then again, maybe I don’t want to go there…
Frankly, writing this at the end of a day when I learned that Barack Obama dumped money for birth control from his bilious “stimulus package” to please Republicans, that video makes me even angrier than when I saw the clip on Tuesday night. It seems like a gratuitous slap in the face considering that the bill was going to pass anyway.
But “3-Card Monte” Obama seems set into his groove. One minute he gives the OK for family planning groups working overseas to talk to women about abortion, the next he’s robbing access to low-cost birth control to women in need here in the U.S. What does he really think of his own wife and daughters? Apparently he’s willing to sell women cheap when it comes to “bringing us together.”
This guy seems to like playing with women, keeping them on a string, giving them a little bit, then taking it away. He’s shuffling around issues as we expected because he has no consistent core values. Keeping an eye on all his moves will be difficult. All I’m sure of is that women will ultimately lose the game with this guy. The misogyny exhibited in the campaign in the form of demeaning gestures, the behavior of Jon Favreau with a cardboard cutout of Hillary Clinton, and the apparent comfort with the likes of Ludacris’ video support is now in firmly in place at the top of our government.
What a inspirational role model for all of us…NOT!
By the way, apparently Medicare drug plans stopped covering “sexual performance” drugs Viagra, Cialis and Levitra back in 2007 except for treating certain medical conditions like pulmonary hypertension (saving a CBO projected $2 billion between 2006 and 2015) . Let’s see if the Obama crowd reinstates coverage and gives women ANOTHER insulting slap. Nothing would surprise me at this point…
UPDATE 1
Many thanks to Harold who found a video of the exchange…from his comments!! I will try to embed the video when I get back later…
Clinton laughed and said something along the lines of “I cannot afford to make a joke like that. You know what people would say if *I* made a joke like that” and he continued a while like that, then made a pretty stupid joke himself which I forgot.
I found the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXuRlcUjoAE
Here is the video from the link provided above…but it’s from CNN, not Greta’s show.
So, the woman was “the ugliest” woman Bush I had ever seen… what a PIG he is…and Clinton just goes along for the ride.
Filed under: Current Politics | Tagged: "On the Record", "stimulus package", 3-Card Monte Obama, birth control, CBO (Congressional Budget Office), Cialis, contraception, feminism, Former President Bill Clinton, Former President George H. W. Bush, Greta Van Susteren, Hillary Clinton, Hurricane Katrina, Jon Favreau, Levitra, Ludacris, Medicare, misogyny, National Association of Auto Dealers Chairwoman Annette Sykora, New Orleans, pulmonary hypertension, Republicans, the Great Depression, the National Association of Auto Dealers conference, The Times-Picayune, Viagra, wombs, women's health issues |
InsightAnalytical -- Watching Our World 
Stimulus bill moves us closer to nationalized health care and rationing
The House of Representatives approved an $819 billion economic stimulus package Wednesday. The party line vote was a blow to Barack Obama’s alleged desire for bipartisanship. All the Republicans and 11 democrats voted against the bill. One thing in the bill that went mostly unnoticed was a new bureaucracy called the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research.
This is just another example of how meaningless we are in the scheme of things. Two former (and allegedly wiser) Presidents find women’s issues laughable. We’ve not come such a long way, baby.
If it makes you feel any better, just imagine the reaction Bill got when he next saw Hillary.
I am certainly not always in agreement with what is written here, but I was quite astonished at the segment as well.
Clinton laughed and said something along the lines of “I cannot afford to make a joke like that. You know what people would say if *I* made a joke like that” and he continued a while like that, then made a pretty stupid joke himself which I forgot.
I found the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXuRlcUjoAE
This is the Bush-Clinton clip you are ferring to, including Clinton’s response: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXuRlcUjoAE
THANK YOU, HAROLD!! I thought of YouTube but life got in the way…
I kept going back to Greta but never found it there!
I have to go out, but will try to embed it in the post….for now, will just not the link in an UPDATE!~~
THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!!
This morning Obama (with great fanfare) signed into law the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. A long overdue act and very much needed. But does Obama think that just because he signed a bill that others worked so hard for (and for which he is taking credit) that we will forget all the slights he has made? Obama is good at taking credit for others’ work. In Chicago, his mentor Emil Jones, was famous for giving Obama the credit for other peoples’ work. Remember he said “I’m going to make me a senator”?
Clinton and GHW Bush disgust me with these actions that IA reports on. There is nothing lower , IMO, than a man who makes a joke at the expense of women. If they only knew it demeans them in the process.
The problem is that there are too many women who don’t mind these jokes….See: Last election!!
And, I am tired of being told, by other women, lighten up….they don’t mean anything by it. Some women are their own worst enemies!!
Lee,
It only demeans them in the eyes of women, so…
The Fair Pay Act was an empty gesture so Obama would have something to wave in womens faces when we complain about his misogyny. I think even Obama would have rued the reaction he’d have received if he vetoed the bill.
Why would you expect anything different from GHW Bush? Anyone who’s aware of his history knows what a nasty piece of work the man is. Don’t let his charitable foundation fool you; that’s conscience money to try to wipe the blood off his hands. I wouldn’t be surprised if it comes to light one day that it’s a major money laundering operation.
The day Satan drags his riddled soul down to hell I will do a happy dance, bad knees and all.
As for Clinton, I’ll have to view the clip, which I can’t do from work. It sounds disappointing, but as much as I admire Clinton for the good he’s done, he’s far from a paragon.
I have to say that after watching the video I’m still disappointed in Bill. He didn’t join in, but he certainly made it sound like Poppy was the “cool” guy for being able to crack the joke.
I hope neither of them decides to go into stand-up comedy.
Lawsuit filed claiming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is constitutionally ineligible to serve
There were serious questions about the constitutional eligibility of Hillary Clinton to serve as secretary of State. The issue arises from a vote held to raise the Secretary of States salary. Senator Hillary Clinton voted for this increase. The Constitution forbids members of the Senate from being appointed to civil office, such as the Secretary of State, if the “emoluments,” or salary and benefits, of the office were increased during the Senator’s term.
I’ve no idea when it was that GHWB first shared this bit of his ‘character’ with the public, but it was years ago. Evidently he figures he’s still getting points from it.
Intellectual Redneck…You can bet the Constitution will suddenly be re-discovered with the news of this lawsuit!!!
Intel. Redneck:
I really don’t think it matters that much. Sometimes, with so many detailed distractions, I think you guys forget the real important and huge problems we face.
A discussion about “equal pay” for example is at a totally different level than the whole salary increase issue.
Likewise I think leaders should lead by example and that is the reason why I found the Bush/Clinton jokes distasteful (and besides.. the jokes really ARE old man’s jokes)..
What REALLY makes me angry is the fact that bankers have a Marie Antoinette complex (though in all fairness: Marie Antoinette was NOT oblivious to the needs of the people, much less so anyway, obviously within the context of that time). Still the whole bonus situation in Wall Street (however legally binding/contractual obligatory) is still.. just so freakin distasteful.
By the way… would love to hear your opinion on the now (in)famous blog: http://dabagirls.com/
Oh, Harold…we KNOW about the huge problems! And, yes, there are MANY distractions, which the media fixates on so that people don’t see what’s really going on…
DIstasteful is one way to put some of the behavior…but it is so much more than that! It is all the engrained atttitude towards women, working people, etc etc. that the D.C. Village have that is really coming out now…but most people don’t get how the pols in D.C. really don’t see people out in the hinterlands at all!!
I’m stunned at Bush’s comment. I really can’t say any more. This kind of bullsh*t just enrages me.