The Blue State

What Clinton was trying to tell Democrats

During his heated interview with Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace, Bill Clinton explained in one sentence why the Bush Administration is weak on terrorism.  Democratic strategists pay close attention!

I know that what I am about to write I have written on numerous occasions.  But unless Democrats drive home this point between now and the election, they will not overcome the polling advantage that the Republicans currently have on the terrorism issue.  Realistically speaking, based on all that we know now, this is an issue that Democrats should be leading on, not shying away from.

In the Chris Wallace interview with Bill Clinton on Fox News Sunday, the former President said this about how the Administration has dropped the ball in the effort to hunt al Qaeda in Afghanistan:

"But you know we do have a government that thinks Afghanistan is only one-seventh as important as Iraq."

This point is absolutely important -- and you all need to tell your right-wing friends this if they ever start spouting off about how Democrats are weak on terrorism.  We have 20,000 troops in Afghanistan, and 147,000 troops in Iraq (1/7 ratio if you do the math).  Yet, as I have been writing over and over again, only five percent of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq consists of al Qaeda fighters.  Combine that with Shiite militia, and you have around two percent of all the armed resistance in Iraq coming from al Qaeda.  Compare that with the fact that 100% of the insurgency in Afghanistan consists of Taliban and al Qaeda fighters.  So, as Clinton was saying, you can't tell me that Iraq is seven times more important than Afghanistan.  We're fighting the wrong people in Iraq.  How about those that actually attacked us on 9/11?  Those terrorists are in Afghanistan.

And now we have learned, thanks to the 2006 National Intelligence Estimate, that being in Iraq has made our fight against terrorism even more challenging than had we not diverted troops and other vital resources to this misadventure in the first place.

If the Democrats are looking for a clear and direct argument to make to the American people as we get closer to election day, it's right here.  Comparing Troop numbers and the percentage of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Iraq provides an objective analysis of why this Administration is weak on fighting terrorism abroad.
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Other sites blogging about Iraq: Nam Guardian Angel, Media Matters, Daily Kos, The Carpetbagger Report, Specious Reasoning, The Smirking Chimp, The Democratic Daily.

(Video) Matthews: Bill Clinton, the rockstar of 2006

On the syndicated weekend program the Chris Matthews Show, a panel of columnists spoke about Bill Clinton’s global initiative, and how it puts him miles apart from the current President with regard to his image around the world:

Click to watch video clip

--- Partial Transcript ---

KATTY KAY: “The more unpopular George Bush is, in retrospect, Bill Clinton looks like a pretty good thing.  And you’ve seen those bumper stickers: ‘At least Bill Clinton’s lies didn’t kill anybody’ – and those are known all around the world as well.”

Unfortunately, Fox News doesn't see it that way.  Watch the Bill Clinton interview on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.

(Video) Bill Clinton on Fox News Sunday

This morning on Fox News Sunday, former President Bill Clinton exposed host Chris Wallace and the Fox News Network for their obvious right-wing bias.  I have been waiting for someone to talk like this to Fox News for five years!  Way to go Bill!

There are two parts to this video:

Click to watch clip >> (Part One) (Part Two)

So you can read along, here is the official transcript of the Bill Clinton Interview on Fox News Sunday.

I bet Chris Wallace was surprised to hear a progressive stand up for himself -- since he and his conservative friends on Fox are used to people like Alan Colmes who just sit there and say nothing while they spew out their right-wing rhetoric.  They easily lose sight of the fact that there are other people out there in this world with their own opinions that don't fall in line with Roger Ailes' right-wing memo that he sends out each day to his Fox staff. 

Clinton was right.  The whole reason why this pre-9/11 myth is even an issue today is because networks like Fox have been trying to further the perception that Bill Clinton was soft on terrorism.  But as Bill Clinton explained, there was only one counter terrorism expert that served during the Reagan, Bush Sr, Clinton and Bush Jr years -- Richard Clarke.  He has a loyalty to all those presidents.  But it's funny that people over at Fox News never talk about Clark's book or what it says in it.

In fact, I encourage you all to buy Richard Clarke's book.  It's critical of all four administrations.  However, it also did say that Clinton was much more "obsessed" with terrorism than our current President was prior to 9/11.