kos diary: Hillary praised Barry Goldwater last year (UPDATE)

[cali]

by VirginiaDem
Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 01:36:22 PM PST
Well, with her opening fire on Obama (and twisting his words) about the GOP being the party of ideas (nowhere did he say "better ideas") in the past, I recalled hearing her say some nice things about Barry Goldwater in a recent HBO special. I can't remember the exact words, so I went searching around. I came across this:

In the HBO documentary Mr. Conservative, now out on DVD, Goldwater gets glowing praise from Democrats Edward Kennedy and Hillary Clinton .... So liberals can admire, as Clinton does, "his wonderful sort of Western ways and values" ....
VirginiaDem's diary :: ::
So, in 2006, she said she "admired outspokenness" of the anti-Civil Rights Act, anti-unions, anti-New Deal conservative. And now she's attacking Obama for noticing that the GOP pushed ideas better than the Democrats before the era of the netroots. Interesting -- I guess it's okay for her to praise the architect of the modern conservative movement but not okay for Obama to make a historical (not value-based) historical observation. Silly season, indeed.

I can't find this video online, but with today's attacks, I bet it finds its way into the mainstream soon.

UPDATE: Hillary on her values:

"I have gone from a Barry Goldwater Republican to a New Democrat, but I think my underlying values have remained pretty constant; individual responsibility and community. I do not see those as being mutually inconsistent."
No, this isn't teenage Hillary talking. She can praise anti-Civil Rights conservatives all she wants. Just don't make an issue of Obama talking (without praising) about the same crew.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/18/161326/303/308/439038

[TwilightZone]

1. Goldwater = Reagan?

Is that the point you're trying to make?

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[TwilightZone]

21. Oh, I'm so devastated! How will I go on without your brilliant wisdom to light my way?

My God, you people are full of yourselves.

[William769]

23. I believe so.

:rofl:

[TwilightZone]

30. Welcome to the club

Did you see #20?

[William769]

32. Of course!

Karma will be stopping by shortly.

[TwilightZone]

35. I found it hilarious, personally.

Considering the topic of the past few days, the intent of the OP couldn't be any more perfectly clear.

I can't believe that someone a) would actually claim otherwise, and b) would nearly have a coronary over it.

This place just keeps getting funnier. I keep intending to leave, but it's become some bizarre form of comic relief.

[Barack_America]

38. No Hillary = Republican is the point I'm trying to make. n/t

[TwilightZone]

40. Are you cali?

That would explain a lot, I suppose.

[Captain Hilts]

2. Goldwater was pro-gay rights, and very liberal on some issues. nt

[sniffa]

3. ZOMG

This is a screaming outrage. I expect no less than 50 Goldwater threads by tomorrow.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. My Sentiments Exactly

"I think my underlying values have remained pretty constant; individual responsibility and community. I do not see those as being mutually inconsistent..."

[rinsd]

5. Looks like Obama's meatball about the GOP getting smacked around is starting to sting

[Cameron27]

6. Barry Goldwater was a friend of

Jack Kennedy's for heaven's sakes, he wasn't in the same universe of bad as Ronald Reagan.

edited for Cali

[cali]

7. He certainly was not best friends with Jack Kennedy

and he mellowed out as he aged, but he was a right wing nut job when he ran for prez.

[Cameron27]

9. Cali,

Goldwater and Kennedy were friends, close friends.

[cali]

13. They were friends. I don't know how close they were and I know

enough to know they weren't "best friends" as you claimed. Furthermore Goldwater was the spiritual "father" of Reagan in many ways. This is from wiki. Goldwater was about as anti-union, anti-welfare as you could get.

"Goldwater rejected the legacy of the New Deal and fought inside the Conservative coalition to defeat the New Deal coalition. He lost the 1964 presidential election by a large margin to incumbent Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson. The Johnson campaign and other critics painted him as a reactionary, while supporters praised his crusades against the federal government, labor unions, and the welfare state."

[TwilightZone]

19. Are you going to keep shifting the goal posts?

They weren't friends. They were friends, but weren't close. They were friends, but I don't know how close they were.

One thing is clear. You have no idea what you're talking about.

[cali]

29. I didn't claim they were best friends, and I'm not the one

shifting the goal posts and having gone out with David Kennedy for a year- including spending a couple of months at Hickory Hill- I'm willing to bet I know more about that family than most people do. I do know that being friendly in the Senate is not the same as being close personal friends.

[TwilightZone]

33. Oh, please. Could you be a little more intentionally obtuse?

Wikipedia:

He was also friends with Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts; in fact, Goldwater anticipated that a contest for the presidency between John F. Kennedy and Goldwater himself would have been an enjoyable experience, with lively debates between them, one of which was to be held on board a plane in flight. Goldwater was grief-stricken by the assassination of Kennedy and was greatly disappointed that his opponent in the race would not be JFK

Sorry, but Goldwater was closer to Goldwater than you were. Pardon me if I accept his opinion over your constantly-shifting one.

[cali]

39. You are so full of it.

That's the best you can do? Pathetic. They served in the Senate together and were friendly. That doesn't mean they were close personal friends- and they weren't. He wasn't in the Kennedy coterie that hung out in the White House. Professional friendship isn't the same as personal friendship.

[TwilightZone]

42. Ah, yes, we can't have good friends that also happen to be co-workers.

Simply not possible. No one ever develops solid friendships with their co-workers. Never happens.

You really are unbelievable.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

14. How Could You Not Like Jack Kennedy?

~

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. Hmmm

More than two years before the 1964 election, Goldwater committees were being formed. Mr. Goldwater was enthusiastic about the prospects of running against President John F. Kennedy, whom he liked personally but disagreed with politically.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/may98/goldwater30.htm

[cali]

15. LOL!

And that's it? That's your proof that they were as the poster claimed, best friends?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

26. See Post Seventeen

~

[TwilightZone]

17. Try again.

From wikipedia:

He was also friends with Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts; in fact, Goldwater anticipated that a contest for the presidency between John F. Kennedy and Goldwater himself would have been an enjoyable experience, with lively debates between them, one of which was to be held on board a plane in flight. Goldwater was grief-stricken by the assassination of Kennedy and was greatly disappointed that his opponent in the race would not be JFK

[cali]

31. Sorry, that proves nothing

they were friendly in the Senate. It's a clubby place. And he was hardly the only person stricken with grief over JFK's death.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

36. You Started Out Saying They Weren't Friends

Now we are debating how strong their friendship was... Maybe you should buy a ouija board, channel the ghosts of Kennedy and Goldwater and ask them how much they really liked one another...

[TwilightZone]

41. Hey, don't tempt her. That's probably next.

She did date David Kennedy, you know.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

8. Yes

They looked forward to campaigning against one another in 1964, going across the country and sharinf their ideas, and letting the people decide...

[SoxFan]

24. Tip O'Neill and Reagan were friends

But they agreed on virtually nothing.

Joe Biden counted Strom Thurmond among his closest friends in the senate.

But they agreed on nothing.

Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch are close friends.

They agree on virtually nothing.

Just because a Republican was "friends with JFK" doesn't mean that their views were somehow less out of whack.

Goldwater was the Ron Paul fringe dweller of the 1960s GOP. His libertarian streak makes people overlook what a right winger he was on most issues.

[Barack_America]

10. Didn't she just admit that she's a Republican in Democrats' clothing?

"I have gone from a Barry Goldwater Republican to a New Democrat, but I think my underlying values have remained pretty constant; individual responsibility and community"

I mean, if we're going to take her comments as literally as Obama's comments were taken....if you were a Republican, but kept the same "underlying values" when you started calling yourself a Democrat....aren't you still technically a Republican?

[Barack_America]

16. Anyone care to start the "Hillary admits she's a Republican" thread?

I mean, we've got the quote right here. And if you interpret it a certain way (i.e. the way that you interpret that "Obama loved Reagan's policies" from his comment)....she just admitted that she's still a Republican.

[Cameron27]

18. No,

when I hear her talk about the excesses of the 60's and 70's, and when her spokesperson opines about the Democrat's disease, then I might consider her a Republican in a Democrat's clothing.

[Barack_America]

25. She just said that she kept the "underlying values" of the Republican Party...

...I don't think that the "underlying values" of the Democratic Party are the same as the "underlying values" of the Democratic Party.

I've got the quote to prove that right here, just like you had the quote that "proved" that Obama agreed with Reagan's policies.

It's right there, Hillary is a Republican.

[durrrty libby]

12. lol

[Ian David]

22. Lots of Liberals and Progressives have been citing Barry Goldwater lately.

http://www.goldwatermiller08.com/

[beachmom]

27. All of this illustrating how stupid this campaign has become. The Clinton

campaign started this game by attacking Obama's insightful words on Reagan and political transformation, so now she can't complain if her past support of Goldwater is brought up. I guess we have officially entered the silly season (or did that start back in December?).

[Barack_America]

34. That's exactly my point in claiming that Hillary is a Republican...

If you distort her words as Obama's were distorted regarding Reagan, this "underlying values" quote gives you the same right to call Hillary a Republican.

[robbedvoter]

37. Insightful? "A lot of liberal rhetoric did seem to value rights and entitlements over

over duties and responsibilities"

by promising to side with those who worked hard, obeyed the law, cared for their families, loved their country, Reagan offered Americans a sense of common purpose that liberals seemed no longer able to muster
Obama's book p 32

Do you buy into the "Welfare queens" campaign too? You do know that the excesses of the 60s are code for the civil rights legislation that irked Raygun's base, right?

[midnight]

28. I'm a democrate. But I grew up in Arizona.

The only similarity that I can think of off the top of my head is that the both were Republicans-Reagan and Goldwater. But the respect that Mr. Goldwater had for the Indians was genuine and very important toward keeping learning and diversity developin in Arizona. He spent most of his entire adult life learning about the indans and there ways of life. Also he(Goldwater)called to impeach Nixon. Ronald Regan preseved greed.