Bill Clinton Gets Two Journalists Out of North Korea.

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

So now the only question is: How will the Usual Suspects try to spin this so that it’s a negative for Clinton and/or Obama?

PAD

146 comments on “Bill Clinton Gets Two Journalists Out of North Korea.”

  1. One of the reasons that it appears to be a different thread is that political blog posts tend to generate more responses, and faster, than any other type of blog post.

    Me, I think that just as the Reich–er, I mean, the Right, accuses Obama of subservience to Arabs because he bowed when visiting Saudi Arabia, they’ll accuse Clinton of being “too friendly” with North Korea, and assuming Clinton’s trip was approved by the White House (which I assume it was), that Obama is similarly so.

  2. Oh wait. I see what you mean. I just checked the “Older Comments”, and they’re they’re from the post about Obama mentioning atheists in his speech some time ago.

    Um, Glenn?

      1. I was gonna say. I mean, I did check the site this morning, and even some of the most notable threads, like for SD, didn’t generate that many posts that quickly. 🙂

        As for the actual discussion, I’m not going out of my way to see what Some People are saying about this. I don’t need any headaches.
        .
        But the thought of spin from some quarters did come to mind pretty quickly.

  3. I’m thinking they’ll say Bill slept with KJI, and bring out more anti-gay propaganda. I mean, we’re only what, half a step away from them suggesting things like that with a straight face right?

      1. Okay, so maybe he said that he’d sleep him KJI *unless* the journalists were released?

      2. It’s Lil Kim, not Little Kim. And it might be spelled with an apostrophe, but it wasn’t on the cd I just looked at today.
        .
        And that’s the only reason I know, because if I had looked at the cd a month ago, I likely would have forgotten by now.

  4. Oh, it’s a simple spin to make this look bad:

    “While it’s a wonderful thing that these two women were able to come home, we should not be negotiating/dealing with this rogue state. Sending North Korea a former head of state to meet with is just giving them what they want, and it shows them that Obama is too weak to set the terms in dealing with them.”

  5. John Bolton was already out there yesterday, talking about how we were giving the North Koreans too much deference in sending an ex-President to NK. In short, they used the “appeasement” meme to describe sending an unofficial envoy with no official authority to give up anything. Of course, to John Bolton, anything that doesn’t involve bombs falling and troops landing is “appeasement.”

    Meanwhile, I expect that at this moment, Bill Clinton is informing the Secretary of State of everything he observed while he was over there and his assessments about how open they might be to talks about their nuclear program. And all that we gave up for it was a picture of Clinton and Kim sitting next to other? Oh, we came out on the short end of that deal!

  6. From the Fox News Website (their banner reads Breaking News/Current News/Latest News – rendundant much?):
    “On a certain level, it makes me uncomfortable,” Logan added. “You don’t want to get into the business of shooting former presidents out of cannons into foreign lands, not to deal with workaday diplomatic problems.”
    .
    So he’s a jerk for trying to help for no particular reason, and because his quiet, stoic approach to the situation was so hard to find fault with they decided to throw in some circus imagery.
    .
    Really I was kind of impressed with him for not giving a speech of his own, and letting the women have the chance to say things for themselves. Many good people would have felt like they should say something, but he had the grace to realize that it wasn’t about him.

  7. I’m sure Clinton sexed his way through the negotiations, and sexed his way with the two lovely ladies after he rescued them. The man can sex his way out of anything.

      1. Sounded like a joke to me.
        .
        Rush Limbaugh brought the idea up in seriousness, though.

  8. So, is George Bush going the get the hikers in Iran out now to step it up? Or Mitt Romney? Or… *chills*… Ðìçk Cheney.

    1. Actually, I’m convinced if you gave Ðìçk Cheney a shotgun and let him loose somewhere in a middle-Eastern mountain, he’d probably take care of a huge chunk of Al-Quedia.

      2. Ðìçk Cheney’s idea of hunting to to have the car pull up next to the bush where the birds with the clipped wings will be released. And he still managed to hit a friend instead of the lamed birds.
        .
        Yeah, that’s the guy I want on a rescue mission. For backup he can take Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane and Wile E. Coyote.

  10. Let’s just take it as a given that the ‘suspect’ will find a way to turn this into a negative, but as far as I’m concerned, two families have now been reunited with two journalists who could have spent quite a bit of time rotting somewhere in North Korea.

    Incidentally, did you ever notice when these critics want to find fault, they usually start with a positive remark or compliment that is inevitably followed by BUT and then a thinly veiled dig. It’s like the old Paul Reiser comedy routine where he explained you could say that nastiest thing about anybody but follow it with the words ‘I’m just saying…’

  12. “It’s like the old Paul Reiser comedy routine where he explained you could say that nastiest thing about anybody but follow it with the words ‘I’m just saying…’”
    .
    Especially if you’re an Aaron Sorkin character.
    .
    PAD

    1. Falls under the category of “eraser” statements. Comedian Dom Irrera (sp?) used to talk about his buddies from the Italian neighborhood, calling them every name in the book, insulting mothers and sisters, only to end it with “I don’t mean that in a bad way.”
      I’m told the Southern version is to end with, “God bless ’em”, as in “You know his parents were cousins, right? God bless ’em”.

      –Ed

      1. Around here in North carolina, it’s “Bless his (or her) heart.” Generally it’s delivered with a backhanded compliment and/or mild rebuke and is actually a real twist of the knife, implying that the person in question is just too much of a simpleton to expect any better of.
        .
        Example: “Joe Biden, bless his heart, is doing the best job he can.”

    2. In fact, there is a play called “Only Kidding” which is exactly about that line. Two comics – one an older, sarcasm comic and one a younger of the same type appear on a talk show, and the young one sort of takes the stage with his bit, and he is insulting almost beyond the bounds of good taste – but always culminating by saying, “only kidding”, thus supposedly alleviating the nastiness.

      It’s pretty interesting, and it does talk about exactly this – “only kidding” or “I’m just saying”, still doesn’t make any less rude or insulting.

      I remain,
      Sincerely,
      Eric L. Sofer
      The Silver Age Fogey
      x<]:o){

  13. Actually, not to take away from what Clinton did–anyone who voluntarily goes to a hëll hole like North Korea deserves credit–but shouldn’t it be Obama who gets the majority of the credit? The way some people have framed it, you’d think Clinton went there to negotiate the release and succeeded. the truth is, it was all negotiated ahead of time–the deal was if Clinton shows up he comes home with the hostages.
    .
    So if we celebrate this situation–and I see no reason not to, it isn’t like the North Koreans gained much other than getting some attention, which is pathetic on so many levels but doesn’t really affect us much–let’s give some credit to whoever it was that got the agreement, which would seem to be the administration.

    1. but shouldn’t it be Obama who gets the majority of the credit?
      .
      I don’t know if it should be Obama per se – I’m sure the White House played a large part in this, but I don’t know about Obama specifically. But I like the fact that Obama has being low key about this. In the end, everybody seems willing to let Clinton take the credit, and I’m fine with that.
      .
      Plus, if Obama did take credit, then the negative nancys would turn from Clinton hogging the credit to the fact that it would be Obama hogging the credit.

      1. There was word that our reporters were coming back before Bill Clinton even landed in North Korea. Bill Richardson has said in an interview that he wasn’t in on the fine details, but he’s positive that you don’t send someone like Bill Clinton unless guarantees have already been worked out that he’ll come back with our people.
        .
        I’d say that Bill Clinton’s major part was in being the prize, the concession of respect that North Korea wanted. The State Department has been working on this for awhile and he was the final piece. So it’s not so much that he did significant negotiating as that he was the last runner in a very long relay race. He crossed the finish line and gets all the attention, but it took a big group effort to get him there.

  14. Someone on Twitter said that it just showed what a ladies’ man Bill Clinton is – he can’t even go to North Korea without bringing a couple of women home with him! 🙂

      2. Hadn’t seen the other posts on the other page, as I thought they were ALL from January.
        .
        And you’re right; same joke, essentially. (Putting ‘essentially’ in there allows for discussion of whether or not 2 jokes can be the same with slightly different wording.)

  15. Why so negative PAD? As a Republican I see this as a good thing. However these journalist were political tools from the moment they were picked up and ment to be used as bargaining chips. They are small part of a larger battle to control North Korea. I hope that Bill was able to make some high level progress on there nuclear program however since the last 16 years a filled with stop and go efforts that I would say have been ineffective by both Republicans and Democrats I hope that Obama and his state department are trying to find a way to look at North Korea at some kinda of new angle to defuse there trouble making nature. See what comes of this if nothing else maybe we can keep North Korea talking until Kim kicks the bucket.

    Glad these reporters are home and with them and the Clintons a long and full life.

    1. Well, she’s not lying about the astro-turf part. That’s ongoing, and well documented, even it doesn’t account for 100% of the protests.
      .
      So are you suggesting she’s lying about right-wingers bringing swastikas or other such symbols to the town-hall meetings on health care? That’s quite possible. Pelosi, like the majority of politicians (regardless of party) has only a passing familiarity with the truth.
      .
      Either way, I don’t see how it’s relevant to Peter David or his views on tolerance.

  17. You thought they’d have trouble spinning it? He went and TALKED TO TEH ENEMY! Now America looks like a country of pûššìëš! And two people were released from captivity blah blah blah CLENIS!

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