Tuesday, January 22, 2008

"There's a Pattern..."

Hillary Clinton in last night's Democratic debate:
"Senator Obama, it is very difficult having a straight-up debate with you because you never take responsibility for any votes. That is a pattern."
George H.W. Bush at the October 19, 1992 Presidential debate:
There's a pattern here of appealing to the auto workers and then trying to appeal to the spotted owl crowds or the extremes in the environmental movement. You can't do it as president: you can't have a pattern of one side of the issue one day and another the next.

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When you're president of the US, you cannot have this pattern of saying well, I'm for it but I'm on the other side of it.

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This is my point tonight. We're talking about 2 weeks from now you've gotta decide who's gonna be president. And there is this pattern that has plagued in him the primaries and now about trying to have it both ways on all these issues.

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My argument with him on -- the question was about the draft -- is that there's this same pattern. In New Hampshire Senator Kerrey said you ought to level, you ought to tell the truth about it. On April 17 he said he'd bring out all the records on the draft. They have not been forthcoming. He got a deferment or he didn't. He got a notice or he didn't. And I think it's this pattern that troubles me, more than the draft. A lot of decent, honorable people felt as he did on the draft. But it's this pattern.

And again, you might be able to make amendments all the time, Governor, but you've got to, as president, you can't be on all these different sides, and you can't have this pattern of saying well, I did this or I didn't, then the facts come out and you change it.

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And then, Helen, I really believe where people are going to ask this question about trust, because I do think there's a pattern by Governor Clinton of saying one thing to please one group, and then trying to please another group. And I think that pattern is a dangerous thing to suggest would work for the Oval Office. It doesn't work that way when you're president.
Oh, there's a pattern here alright. There's this pattern of Hillary going to the Bush family playbook of insinuations in order to get herself elected. Nice use of the royal "we," too, Hil-Dawg.

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