Bill blames Obama for candidates' ouster
Posted: Saturday, February 16, 2008 3:00 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann
NACOGDOCHES, Texas -- Continuing his swing through eastern Texas last night, Bill Clinton continued to slam Obama's discounting of "fights" of the past, even saying that Obama's argument can be blamed for the elimination of Democratic candidates who have already dropped out of the race.
"If you fought you made somebody mad, and you got cut up," he said, parodying what he says is Obama's "explicit argument" against Clinton. "We just have to turn over a new leaf. And it is actually an advantage not to have any experience because then you never made anybody mad."
Clinton added that the strategy of equating experience with the taint of partisan injury "has been very effective in this campaign."
"It has already taken four candidates out, four good candidates out," he said. "And it would have taken Hillary out if she didn't have so much grassroots support and so much guts in the face of a lot of what has happened here. "
Bill Clinton added that Hillary believes in solutions, not speeches. He says that might be "a generational thing." But, in the same breath, he also touts his own speechmaking ability.
The former president often closes his remarks by saying that his wife will "keep score" by evaluating whether or not she has made positive changes in the lives of Americans. Tonight, he added, "Maybe it's a generational thing" -- continuing in his theme today of a little light sarcasm at the expense of Barack Obama and his supporters. "But it's always the way I've kept score."
Clinton went on to tout -- at length -- his own speech-making abilities, as if to one-up the crowds of tens of thousands appearing at Obama's rallies in recent weeks. "I've been told I give a pretty good speech," he said, grinning. He mentioned attendance of over a million at a speech in Africa, and over 100,000 when he spoke at the Brandenburg Gate after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
"I know the importance of words and inspiration," he said.
