Spin of the Year: Time Touts Bill Clinton as More Devoted to Chelsea Than to Power

Photo of Tim Graham.
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Bill Clinton is engaged in a major rehabilitation project with historian and personal friend Taylor Branch. Time magazine is eager to help: eager enough to boast that Bill Clinton was a terrific father, and cared more about his daughter Chelsea than his job in the White House. Time’s Nancy Gibbs touted "The Other Bill Clinton," manuevering around the massive paternal embarrassment of his adultery and sexual harassment scandals:

When Rush Limbaugh called her "the White House dog," T-shirts appeared saying LEAVE CHELSEA ALONE. Which, remarkably, most people did.

One person who did not leave Chelsea alone was her father. In acclaimed historian Taylor Branch's new book The Clinton Tapes — woven from Branch's recorded conversations with the President from 1993 to 2001 — the portrait of the relationship between Bill Clinton, a man who never knew his own father, and his daughter reveals a side we rarely saw on the public stage. Bill Clinton, it turns out, raised a daughter and ran the free world, sometimes in that order.

If you don't believe it, consider the fight Branch describes between Clinton and Al Gore in November 1995. Gore told Clinton the President needed to visit Japan to heal a rift caused when Clinton failed to attend an APEC economic summit. Looking over Clinton's calendar, Gore noticed three light days in January. No, Clinton said, he needed to be home for Chelsea, who'd be taking her junior-year midterms. Gore was dumbstruck. "Al," Clinton said, "I am not going to Japan and leave Chelsea by herself to take these exams." A new rift opened — between Clinton and Gore. Branch describes Clinton as wrestling with the problem "like a medieval scholastic. It was a choice between public duty on a vast scale, and the most personal devotion." The Tokyo trip was set for April.

Chelsea wanders into and out of Branch's account of the Clinton presidency, singing show tunes, soliciting help with math homework or with an essay weighing Dr. Frankenstein's best and worst qualities. Bill Clinton's sensitivity to the challenges his daughter faced belies his image as an unabashed narcissist. The President would be late for anything except her ballet recitals; he would flaunt any asset for political advantage except her.

Gibbs concluded:

There is plenty in Branch's account to remind people why he drove them crazy. But it is bracing and confounding to see another side, the faults transcended, the ego contained. Clinton had great advantages as a parent, but unique challenges as well, and he rose to them in a way people sensed but rarely saw; a USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll in 1997 found that 81% of respondents thought he had been a good father, even though that was the role he played most privately. For her sake, he hid what was best in himself. That's worth remembering the next time we imagine we ever really know the people we judge.

It’s no mistake that Gibbs cherry-picked a poll from 1997, the year before the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke. Gibbs is most pathetic in trotting all the old Clinton-defending line that we don't "ever really know the people we judge." Would a Time writer be caught dead using that line on behalf of a George W. Bush or Dick Cheney?

—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.


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Why is it that GOP

Why is it that GOP presidents just fade away after office, yet we're stuck for life with former Dem presidents?!

Hound dogs are more fun?

Hound dogs are more fun?

Tim

I don't see any wrong with talking about how good of a father Clinton is. It is obvious Bill Clinton loves his daughter, just like George Bush loves his daugher. 

"I have a Bush man-crush, you need to understand."-Mr. Shy

~Thanks for the link, Shawn

That was great.

 

That high-pitched scream you hear is the lying leftist under my heel.

http://newsbusters.o...

fathers and daughters

While I understand the bias between how the family lives of Republican and Democrat politicians are portrayed in the media and perhaps that is a healthy subject for debate but I would hate to see derogatory remarks made about a father-daughter relationship.

 

A person may be won over with logic and reason but the masses must be bought with spectacle and platitudes. - 2008 Elections

Agnostic

Did you watch Shawn's clip?  Because if you didn't, you totally misread Shawn's intent. 

I hope he fails, too.

 

 

Thanks Blonde,

I didn't misread but was generally expressing my desire for there to be no attacks that result in collateral damage to the father-daughter relationship due the averages conservatives disagreement with the media bias that supports Clinton. 

 

A person may be won over with logic and reason but the masses must be bought with spectacle and platitudes. - 2008 Elections

Gotcha, Agnostic

Thanks.

And I agree.  I have no idea about the Clinton's vis-a-vis Chelsea, but I have not seen anything to fault them as parents (well, except their own overwhelming sense of destiny and avaricious pursuit of power).  Chelsea seems to be a well-adjusted young lady (I can't imagine living in that fishbowl during teenaged years), which speaks well of both Clintons as parents, I think.

Enough said for me.

I hope he fails, too.

 

 

That was great, Shawn

"Remember, Dad?  The best day of your life?".

LOL.

I hope he fails, too.

 

 

Clinton and his daughter

Yeah, it's such a heart-warming story. I hope he goes on Ophra, so that the world can see what a great guy he is.The love, the  attention, the relationship...oooh!

NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"

It's easy for B.J. to be

It's easy for B.J. to be more devoted to his daughter than to power when there is no further chance for him to get power.

Branch has No Credibility

Branch is a liar right out of the chute! I am not always a fan of Rush But I saw the particular show in which Rush told his engineer to put up a picture of the "New White House dog". As a joke, they put up a picture of Chelsea and Rush emmidiately chastised them on the air. He followed up with "We are not going to pick on this little girl, shes off limits. Our beef is with her parents." He fired that employee on the spot and never made a degrading statement about her all the time the Clintons were in the White House. Even today, he handles her with kid gloves! Mister Branch belongs over at the Daily Kos Toilet Paper!

Thanks for clarifying that,

Thanks for clarifying that, General!

It always bothered me when people said that about Rush.  I knew something was wrong with it, because I remembered Rush saying something about leaving the kid out of it.  

But of course they make it sound not like a one-off, but as if Rush had a running gag  going for the entire 8 years about Chelsea.

~Clarification

I believe that Tim's point in this article is that no one in the media would ever portray a Republican father, Bush or Cheney in particular, in this light. Especially a philandering Republican.

As far as I can tell in reading his piece, Tim in no way disparages Clinton's relationship with Chelsea.

Off to church now, bye y'all.

 

That high-pitched scream you hear is the lying leftist under my heel.

http://newsbusters.o...

Well I admit I have not checked but....

I have not seen any articles on how great of a Dad Al Gore is, so Cheney in this case is irrelevant. Clinton is almost 9 years removed from office and I did not check it either, but have there been lots of great Clinton father articles in the last decade?

"I have a Bush man-crush, you need to understand."-Mr. Shy

Well, shawn, it could just

Well, shawn, it could just be that repairing his policy legacy was more important.  Then his marriage image, when HRC was running for Prez (the devoted husband, not desiring power of his own) and now what a great Dad he is.

He probably always was a great Dad...most husbands who hurt their wives don't also neglect their kids.

And gosh....he was  just like Her Speakerness with her grandchild in her arms.... taking care of the children, and the country!!

Frankly, I think the author here just thinks that no one ever gets tired of hearing about Bill Clinton. 

VRWC Back!

Billy brought back the 'vast right-wing conspiracy' this week, and claims that it now is aimed at the Bamster!

Bill Clinton Speaks of Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy: http://www.google.com

Oh, you mean Maha Rushie

Clinton said that this time around, the focus is on Obama and "their agenda seems to be wanting him to fail."

And me too, it seems.

Bawahahahaha.  VRWC, BJC sounds like a troofer.

I hope he fails, too.

 

 

            I

            I guess Monica remided him of his daughter.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

THATS GROSS JESSIEH!! "I

THATS GROSS JESSIEH!!

"I have a Bush man-crush, you need to understand."-Mr. Shy

I believe it

I recall reading, in a rather unflattering book about Hillary, that Bill was completely unprepared for how he "fell in love" with Chelsea after she was born. I have watched this very thing happen to a man, and I understood immediately what the author was saying.

I believe it. But then again, I also suspect that if the Clintons were my next door neighbors, I would like Bill. (Probably not so much Hillary). I feel the same way about the Obamas. But that doesn't mean that I want them in a position of power in my country. 

just saying...

 "I would rather be historically accurate than politically correct" ~ My husband's T-Shirt

Mazzi

Believe it or not, it would be the other way around.

I know someone who knew the Clinton's via the Rose Law firm.  I can't quote verbatim, but it always stuck out in my mind.

Bill is terribly shallow, if you meet him one day, and then meet him the next, he won't remember you at all.  Hillary, however, will not only remember you, she'll remember your name and your kid's name.

That makes sense.  With Bill....everything is all about him, all the time.  Same is true about Hillary, only she doesn't have Bill's charm (I hate to admit it but he's very likable), so she makes up for it by seeming to care.  That is, until you cross her.

I hope he fails, too.

 

 

Who's her real dad?

One thing that I've always wondered is if Bill is really her biological father.  From people that I know who knew Chelsea when she was at Stanford, she didn' spend much time with Bill, but prefered Hillary.  When they came to see her together, Bill and Hilary avoided each other and only entered the same room together for photo ops.

 When I first saw pictures of Webster Hubbel, I thought he looked allot like Chelsea.  Since then, I've read articles that others feel the same way.  I know it's one of those conspiracy theories that most will ridicule, but it also explains allot about them.

 Hillary and Bill are only married for power and politics. There is nothing to support that they even like each other. They rarely spend any time together and it's only for a political reason when they do. 

 And it's very strange that she allows him to sleep around with all those women. I'm sure there are allot more then anybody even realizes.  She not only supports him in this, but has a record of actively going after those who bring it up and attacking the women who speak out. 

 To me, it makes sense that if she had a baby by another man, that she would not be able to deny him from screwing around.  She did it and has a child to prove it.

 Then there is the question of why Chelsea is so messed up. She's a drunken fool that the press covers up.  She has some serious issues. Is it from Bill and his afairs, or does it have something to do with something else?

http://www.anusha.com/chelsead.htm

 

The picture above of Chelsea

The picture above of Chelsea is creepy; it looks like she just ate the head of a chicken or something.  Yuck!

 I agree that negative

 I agree that negative comments about family members off limits.  Its to bad that no one ever told that to the democrats.

 

 

 

Liberalism is a Mental Disorder

Her Job?

And funny, last I heard Chelsea was working at a hedge fund, one of the great villains in the liberal pathology, probably because they don't understand them. Why does she get a pass on being a part of the great evil New York financial cabal?

Bill Clinton, family man!

Spare me with the parental dedication of Bill Clintoon!  Do the Clintons ever do anything without political spin? 

No more Clintons, no more Kennedy's and no more Bushes!

Angry White Dude

www.angrywhitedude.c...

He is what he is

Look, lets be honest. Bill Clinton is nothing more than a Cad, certainly a likeable one but a Cad nonetheless. There was this movie once, when I was a kid, black and white if I remember correctly, with a northern (Yankee) businessman traveling through a small southern town on business and was stopped by a deputy sheriff for speeding. The deputy told the Yankee that the Sheriff held court regardless of the day or hour and that’s where they were headed, to pay the fine. The next scene showed the Sheriff sitting on the porch of an old wood frame house in bad need of some paint. He was dressed in a stained wrinkled white suit, a loose tie, an oversize cigar stuck in his mouth and a small glass half full with clear liquid and a couple of ice cubes in his right hand. And to his right, spread out on a swing hanging by two chains from the ceiling, was this young blond, voluptuous and scantly dressed, sucking on what looked like a Popsicle. After a short exchange of words (I just don’t remember much of the dialog) the Yankee dutifully paid his fine and was on his way. Whenever Bill Clinton pops up in the news I think of the Sheriff, white wardrobe and all, and adding to the image some liquor for courage and a camp follower near by. The northeastern elite media frequently makes an effort at scrubbing Mr. Clinton's character. It's likely that will never work; he is what he is, nothing more, nothing less.

Did you hear...

Amy Carter won a spelling bee in 1976... she was the only kid who could spell "Chappaquiddick".

What do you get when you cross a crooked politian with a crooked lawyer?... Chelsea Clinton

I wish the MSM and the democrats were at least half as respectful of political children as I am.

They should be totally off limits.

Beauxdog

OH...... MY....... OBAMA/CLINTON !!!!!!

CNN could not rush fast enough to plaster this on their homepage, of what Clinton said on MTP today.

Un. Real.

 

Shy there may a "vast right

Shy there may a "vast right wing conspiracy" but interestingly enough, it doesn't create fabrications, it only uncovers the truth. 

I'll never forget HRC on Rosie O'Donnell talking about Lewinsky and saying it was all untrue and a vast right wing conspiracy.  How can keep using that phrase when they so clearly are guilty of everything they are accused of?

Under the definition of Chutzpah:  see Clintons

So Bill's a good daddy

So Bill's a good daddy because he had to be home to somehow help Chelsea (junior in high school), help with math homework and read an essay of hers?  I guess liberals parent the way they govern.  My kids studied and did homework by themselves.  I occasionally would quiz them if they wanted me to, but they got more out of being quizzed by friends in their classes who knew what to ask.  By junior year in high school my daughter was doing calculus that I have long since forgotten, and you know what?  She did just fine.  Kids don't need parents holding their hands every step they take and i don't need the government planning my life every step of the way.

Of course he's more devoted to Chelsea...

her friends are hot!

Bill Clinton is dedicated to

Bill Clinton is dedicated to 2 things only: Bill Clinton. And the hunt for Poontang.