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Go Home "he Is A Tremendous Asset"

JANUARY 21, 2008

"he Is A Tremendous Asset"

BY MICHAEL CROWLEY

I can understand tactical-minded Clinton campaign operatives referring to Bill like that. But isn't it a slightly odd way for Hillary to describe her husband? (Imagined response: "The happiest day of my life was the day I met my Tremendous Asset. He means everything to me, he is the father of my child, and moreover provides me with an incomparable strategic advantage across demographic lines.")

Meanwhile, Josh Marshall nicely articulates something I hear from pro-Obama people:

In these extemporaneous policy discussions I always find myself wishing
Obama could be more clear and concise. But my wishes don't seem to come
true.

I think Obama really got bruised up by Clinton and Edwards on health care tonight. Certain of my colleagues will have more on that soon. Update: Here's our health care samurai Jon Cohn on that general point, plus a specific defense of Obama.

--Michael Crowley

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4 comments

c'mon, Mike. It clearly is a matter of his being an asset. She's not saying that is the bais of her marriage to him. Let's try to understand what the candidates mean.

- Eos

January 21, 2008 at 10:32pm

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Obama's legal background shines through a bit sometimes.

- rozenson

January 21, 2008 at 10:49pm

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I agree.  I blanched at the word "asset."  It's the way Trump might refer to one of his trophy wives.  You may hate Maureen Dowd (I often get upset with her), but she was dead on in lampooning the key line from Hillary's memoir.  In describing how she decided to respond to the Lewinsky stuff, Hillary said of Bill:  "He was my husband.  But he was also my President."  Dowd said:  "You can't see her saying, 'He was my husband, but he was also my US Trade Representative.'"  And Dowd, this time, was right.  Everyone knows that what Hillary started getting out of that marriage at a certain point was propinquity with the most powerful man in the US, and not the kind of intimacy and personal affection that most people hope to get from a marriage.

- LDuncan

January 21, 2008 at 11:13pm

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When Obama said he sometimes felt he didn't know who he was running against, Hillary responded, "I think we both have passionate and committed spouses."

How rich! Bill may be passionate but he certainly hasn't been "committed."

- timcrim

January 22, 2008 at 3:23pm

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