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Morgantown, W.V. -- Continuing a whirlwind tour on Monday, former President Bill Clinton stumped for West Virginia Senate candidate Gov. Joe Manchin, a Democrat who has worked to distance himself from Clinton's Democratic successor - Barack Obama.
The former president tailored his speech for Manchin’s careful middle-of-the-road campaigning in a state where Democratic policies are increasingly unpopular.
"If people in this state weren’t hurting and frustrated and angry, he’d be ahead by 30 points and you know it," Clinton said of Manchin.
"I’m old enough to know that when you make a decision when you’re mad -- and this is not just [in] politics -- there’s about an 80% chance you’ll make a mistake," he added.
(Clinton was on message during the speech, but he couldn’t help but joke with the crowd when a woman in the front row
passed out. “At my age, rarely does a woman faint on me,” said the former president.)
His visit to the state came on a day when West Virginians were getting their first taste of Manchin’s
newest television ad, in which the governor slams Obama-backed health care and cap-and-trade legislation.
Just like in his new commercial, Manchin called the new health care law “Obamacare” and said that while there are many aspects of the bill he supports, there are an “awful lot of things in that bill that need to be fixed.”
In an interview after the event, Manchin was even more explicit. When asked whether he would’ve voted for the bill as passed he said, “No, I would not have voted for the final version of that health care law.”
Asked twice if he would like the current president to come to West Virginia, Manchin dodged the question, saying that Clinton had appeared on his behalf merely "as a friend."
“I’ve never had anybody come stump for me," Manchin said. "I don’t do that. Whether it be President Obama, with all due respect, or anybody else. I just have never been that type of a candidate. I think that I’m the one you’re going to have to vote for.”
After the speech, some of the diehard Democratic attendees seemed unfazed by Manchin’s criticisms of Obama’s policies. When asked how she felt about Manchin appearing to run away from his party, Morgantown resident Stella Konchesky said, “He likes to be his own person. You know, he’s still a Democrat but he wants to be his own person being a Democrat and there’s nothing wrong with that. “
Both she and her friend Alice Raley, didn’t seem to mind Manchin’s comments about health care. Raley said, “It isn’t perfect health care, but it’s the best we can get.” She continued, “I know that we were lucky to get what we got. It’s like a stepping stone. Without it we have nothing."
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Mccarthyesque Todd
Chuck Todd and the Media Shields for the Republican Chamber of Commerce... and their Foreign Donors
but isn't this the same Media that asked President Clinton to Open his Charity Financial Books so that his Foreign Donors could be identified...
So Chuck, why the double standard... Why are you requesting silence when it comes to the Republican Chambers of Congress... But transparency when it comes to Democrats....
Here Here, TYTYTY anything2add, for Stateing the Obvious!
I'm surprised your True Statement does'nt get deleted & you get Banned from the Powers that be.
Transparency? Now that's funny. Wasn't it the annointed one who said they would have the most transparent administration in history? Gawd, I can't stop laughing.........
Do you have proof that there have been a more transparent administration....
Ummmm...no other administration promised transparency. What have become transparent are President Obama's pre-election promises.
Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." - Saul Alinsky, President Obama's political mentor.
"Accuse others of what you do" -Karl Marx
Obama's presidential campaign claims they returned $30,000 to Hamas who donated to his campaign in 2008. It was not reported to the Federal Election Board although it was acknowledged by the campaign, and the 3 members of Hamas did not receive the money back from Obama.
Following the book from Saul and Karl.
Because Chuck and his ilk work for the media which pretends to be balanced but is anything but. The media is owned and controlled by corporations whose bottom line is profits.
Ben Franklin was right: There is no democracy without a free press.
So all those people who believe the lies being spewed, all those people who refuse to research on their own for the truth, all those people will get what they deserve Nov.2 if the crazies begin the wreckage of this government.
There are only one or two people in the news business today that I have any respect for. Rachel Maddow, Matt Bai, Lawrence O'Donnell. They do their homework. The rest are hacks.
Chuck Todd and his buddies are shills for the Republican agenda.
Rachel Maddow, Matt Bai, Lawrence O'Donnell. They do their homework.
Do you really read and listen to what they say, All they do is follow what been said on the blogs of other Saul Alinsky transparency providers.
Clinton said Robert Byrd had to join the KKK in order to win public office, and the media gave him a pass for that statement. The voters of WV should reject Clinton and Manchin.
Weak arguement, and getting weaker all the time.
Vote for someone who doesn't even live in this state. Give me a break!!!!!
Naw, they should reject the fake resident running for the Senate...
True so True!!!!!
Manchin has a big effing mouth. His statements are going to hurt OTHER democratic candidates. I hope the windbag loses.
A lot of the guys who can't wait to badmouth Obama rode into washington on his coat tails but, when the going gets a little tough they diss him. They should be targeting REPUBLICANS.
They win an election. attain a majority and then they can't seem to work together as a team. Why on earth bother to try to get elected if you're not going to GOVERN when you win?
Ruinning as a member of a political party presupposes that you are a member of THAT TEAM. If you can stick together, all you're doing is wasting taxpayer time and money and betraying the very people who both voted for you and financed your measley campaign.
The DNC should note fund the campaign of a jerk like this.
Joe - I see were you are coming from but I have to disagree. A Senators first loyalty should be to the people of his state and not to party dogma. If I can agree with most of what he stands for I can find a way to support him or any other candidate.
That's why both parties have extremists and moderates.
He should have either took over the Seat or given it to a Democrat...
Does anyone actually believe that if this were a Republican open seat, that a Republican Governor would have opened this Seat up for another party to potentially take it...
Mr. Obama has become a pariah within his own party. That's evident. One and done Barack.
Yeah - that's why he draws huge crowds when he speaks.
Some Democrats are weak, for they refuse to stand up for what the Democratic Party stands for.
Yet if this idiot Manchin wins, he'll be spouting how wonderful health care reform has been to the poor in his State.
Besides: There are many many people, both Republicans and Democrats, but mostly Republican, who can't stand the fact that a black man sits in the Oval Office.
Anyone with one brain synapse working should be asking why none of these people who are up in arms about deficits and stimulus and health care, etc. never said a word during the Bush administration.
The election of Barack Obama proved to the rest of the world that America, despite its Constitution, is a corporate driven, racist country. And by racist I mean prejudiced against blacks, Latinos, Hispanics, Muslims, Gay, Lesbian, anyone who doesn't adhere to their "family values" which is laughable in itself.
America is a country of low information voters with amnesia and ADD, with a pinch of "science is not real." We have come to the end of the United States as a nation who leads.
As Bill Maher said on his show Friday: The guy in the cave( Osama Bin Laden) gets climate change; the deniers in this country who make law do not get it.
What is happening now would be a funny SNL skit if it were not real. But it is. And it is frightening.
Chandler - Huge crowds? LOL He can't even draw a huge crowd in Madison, WI anymore, and that's a bastion of progressivism.
Politicians spend more time campaigning then working, Something needs to change!
Running away from BHO.... the guy is poisonous! The only one worse to have show up at your fundraiser or campaign stop is Joe Biden.
Manchins a sellout DINO who should just fess up and change to the repubs, he only hurts his party. If he has to do everything like a repub to get elected,why not just embrace it? And does it surprise anyone that he doesn't want to be seen with a black man in West Virginia? Believe me, I live very close to WV, and in these parts of Ohio (which are much like WV ) and WV itself, being seen with a black man would not be considered a positive. Nowhere else in my life have I heard the dreaded "N" word used so often or so loosely, by a bunch of people that have no education and no future, yet they can't believe that a well educated man who happens to be black could be president. Guns, huntin', four wheelers, "their" SSI and welfare checks(but they are again' that socialism that pays them their checks, just like Rush tells 'em to be), beer, pot and hillbilly heroin is all they care about.
If you can't beat em pull out the race card. Again, another fine example of watching way too much Keith Olberman. Chime back in when you have something substantive to add.
Wrong again Sherlock, I don't even have TV, I refuse to watch it.I don't need a talking head from either side telling me what I should think. And dude, I live here, I see it (and hear it) everyday and have for most of my life. And Manchin is still a sellout pandering to the least common denominator, of which WV is full.
Shogun - What makes you think he's well educated? Have you seen his transcripts? Funny, no one else has either. Is it because he can read a pretty speech someone else wrote?
It surely isn't because of the skill with which he's been leading the country. The man is an empty suit, an emperor without clothes. He needs to be neutered before he damages us worse than he has already.
HERE ARE SOME REASONS WHY I WILL ALWAYS VOTE FOR DEMOCRAT CANDIDATES:: McCarthy + Nixon + Agnew + Mitchell + Sloan + Liddy + Haldeman + Ehrlichman + Reagan + Quayle + North + Bushes + Cheney + Rumsfeld + Ashcroft + Gonzales + Paulson + Rove + Gingrich + Bachmann + Palin + O'Reilly + Beck + Hannity + Limbaugh + Raese and many, many others.
Now there's an intelligent comment. A perfect example of what our public school system is churning out these days!
Listen Jerk, I've seen you post this exact thing three times today. Either come up with a relevant post or please just STFU. Good God, people like you are both lazy and opportunistic, clogging up the discourse with your drivel.
You left out one reason why most of us will vote conservative.
Obama, Clinton, Pelosi, etc. etc.
What is up with all the frenzy around Sarah Palin? I don't get it. Everybody claims she is the star of the republican party and hangs on her every word. She is not well read, she jumped out of an office she was elected and expected to fulfill her term, and she can't even control her own kids. Now Manchin is running for Senate-not fulfillin his term-but it is a bit different. He is still serving the citizens of WV-just in another capacity. But Palin? I think she is a bit out there.
Raese is NOT the way to go.
They should shy away from them both.
And it matters not.
The liberal 15 mins. is up.
Better luck next time.
15 minutes of what?
Well, you DO have a valid point there.
Of nothing.
Precisely my impression of you...
Thank you.
What kind of "impressions" do you do?
Ah, liberal insults. That's about all they have anymore.
Don't worry, Anything to Add, your pain and suffering will be over in three weeks. Until then you and your kind will just have to twist in the wind.
Welcome President Bill Clinton. We have really missed you. Just one day in the
Campaign trail and all these Republican tea baggers here are crying to the top of
their voices because they know that now they are finished. With your presence
in the campaign trail, these Republican tea baggers are finished. Keep it up Mr. President.
If you want a good economy, be on Bill Clinton's side.
With your presence in the campaign trail, these Republican tea baggers are finished.
Says a lot about the Demo's doesn't it??They have to get a former POTUS to stump for them but run like hell when the current POTUS comes to town...
Sam do you have anything else to post I have read the same post from you in three different vines. Did it take you all weekend to think that one up?
Shying away may be the understatement of the day. Manchin is sprinting in the opposite direction. He is running as a moderate Republican.
HERE ARE SOME REASONS WHY I WILL ALWAYS VOTE FOR DEMOCRAT CANDIDATES:: McCarthy + Nixon + Agnew + Mitchell + Sloan + Liddy + Haldeman + Ehrlichman + Reagan + Quayle + North + Bushes + Cheney + Rumsfeld + Ashcroft + Gonzales + Paulson + Rove + Gingrich + Bachmann + Palin + O'Reilly + Beck + Hannity + Limbaug + Raese + U Of M Fan and many, many others.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Palin is a role model for many people. The implications of this fact must resonate like growling Mama Grizzlies on hind legs or cause the dead rise up.
Fortunately, most reasonable people (which include Women and regular guys) do not find you a reasonable choice for National Public Office.
Sarah, your metaphors are hilarious!
Keep it up...we enjoy the entertainment !!!
JimW 11 - Did I miss the mention of Palin in this article? Please pay attention. This article is about a Democrat that can't stand the idea of having the current POTUS from his own party help him get votes. I don't like bee stings, but this would not be the place to bring that up.
Go ahead all you Liberal pukes out there....spout off your ignorant mouths. Just remember, Obama is a virus within his owned party and all Democrats know this. Your party is frowned upon.....and you WILL lose badly this election. If your party is so superb, why is it your so despised of??
Liberal means "Weak" and the weak shall fall. Ronald Reagan
First, learn some English grammar.
Second, you and, I fear, a large amount of American voters suffer from stupidity.
Sorry - no cure for that. So it will be your stupidity and the stupidity of others who will eventually nail shut the coffin in which lies the United States.
Nov 2012, some think the world is going to end. So who gives a rat behind about the West Virginia, no one, not even the West Virginians. Go ahead and vote, no cares about those poor helpless people. That's right, I said it.
How in the world Mr. Clinton has the guts to support anybody?I never forgot when he lied to the whole world in front of the cameras.
His agenda is to have his wife elected as President and to make money any way he can. He has no morals and is disgusting, and his finances should be investigated, we would be surprised. I include his wife in my opinion and hope that they dissapear from the public life, better for the US.
kudos,, to chris matthew,,,,his show
explain politics very well,he replies what to the GOP have to hide,
why not disclosed where dirty money are coming from?
he mention that American jobs are overseas ,for cheaper labors.
bought buy big corporation. chris ,tell it' like is is.
freedom - Yea, you and 16 other people love his show. How an idiot like him stays on TV only explains that GE props up this network while Obama props up GE, no bid contracts - Now there a story you won't see on "my legs are tingling" Matthew investigate.
No he bombed aspirin and diaper plants in Serbia and let Bin Laden go twice - He appointed greats like Janet Reno, Joyce Elders and Monica said he wasn't that much of a man, now Hillary, there is a man's man.
Clinton and Obama are due herein my home town this week. The beauty of it is that since Clinton came and stumped for the Dem. for governor his poll numbers have dropped like a stone, once Mr Obama comes and vouches for him the race will be own to three . None of them a Dem. which, here is something that we could use a few less of,considering that their party has just about broke the state in the last forty years that they have had a majority, hopefully we can get rid of the ones in congress too while we are at it, although they pretty much have had a strangle hold on that too for the past forty or so years.
I will thank MR Obama to please do come and campaign for our guys ,just because everyone that you support always looses
EVERYBODY is steering clear of Mr. Obama, if they have any sense anyway. One term and out for this one.
President Obama has been in offlice ...Less than two years....the state of our economy has been brewing long before he took office,,,,those same republicans...who have promised to fix everything..were there contributing to the mess...the party NO stood on the sidelines...they did not roll up their sleeves to help solve the problem....they wanted this administration to look bad...so that they use voter anger to get votes....
they had NO ideas to correct the problem in the last 20 months..they have none now....that Pledge to America...is smoke and mirrors..
part of the problem that the President has is that Americans cannot see what would have happened if the stimulus package had not been in effect....we are only now beginning to see the benefits of the new health care law...
i am hopeful that Democrats will retain...control of the house...and they can use reconcilliation to get past the republican filibuster.....
we need to continue with the Pres...agenda....of Jobs...help for small businesses....renewable energy....education reform....and rebuilding of our infrastructure.....
His agenda, the same foolishness that has relulted in no demonstrable benefit whatsoever?
When asked whether he would've voted for the bill as passed he said, "No, I would not have voted for the final version of that health care law."
I wonder if he would have even READ it, none did... which is the bigger issue with those so-called "representatives".