I also think that the diffusion of the media has complicated things. For example, I was just watching — I don’t know if you heard what I said in the other room — I was just watching MSNBC, and they had a woman that used to work for me and a couple of other people on there, and they were talking about the Republican primary. And I was laughing. I said, “Boy, it really has become our version of Fox.” And I say that because think of the economics of running cable channels. Suppose you and I bought a cable channel, and he [pointing] bought another. You know that to make a living out of it, you’ve got to get about eight hundred thousand viewers for all your major programs. So you can get eight hundred thousand, and you won’t be as wealthy as Fox, but you’ll do okay. And now if you get a slice that’s that small and still viable — and you know it’s not like when we just had NBC, CBS, and ABC. That’s all there was. Everybody had enough market share that they knew would guarantee some comfortable level of profit. And yet there was enough competition that everybody could keep each other honest, and when the Vietnam War came along, they could send fifty-five-year-old reporters to Vietnam for extended stays. They could afford to have correspondents in Europe to report. Correspondents in Asia. All that’s changed now. And so the good news is you can get a lot of information off the Internet for free and in a hurry. But I think the breaking up of the media, which is otherwise kind of healthy, has contributed to less actual reporting and a louder, more contentious, more divisive public discourse, highlighting conflict, sometimes falsely. (via Bill Clinton Interview 2012 - Esquire)

I also think that the diffusion of the media has complicated things. For example, I was just watching — I don’t know if you heard what I said in the other room — I was just watching MSNBC, and they had a woman that used to work for me and a couple of other people on there, and they were talking about the Republican primary. And I was laughing. I said, “Boy, it really has become our version of Fox.” And I say that because think of the economics of running cable channels. Suppose you and I bought a cable channel, and he [pointing] bought another. You know that to make a living out of it, you’ve got to get about eight hundred thousand viewers for all your major programs. So you can get eight hundred thousand, and you won’t be as wealthy as Fox, but you’ll do okay. And now if you get a slice that’s that small and still viable — and you know it’s not like when we just had NBC, CBS, and ABC. That’s all there was. Everybody had enough market share that they knew would guarantee some comfortable level of profit. And yet there was enough competition that everybody could keep each other honest, and when the Vietnam War came along, they could send fifty-five-year-old reporters to Vietnam for extended stays. They could afford to have correspondents in Europe to report. Correspondents in Asia. All that’s changed now. And so the good news is you can get a lot of information off the Internet for free and in a hurry. But I think the breaking up of the media, which is otherwise kind of healthy, has contributed to less actual reporting and a louder, more contentious, more divisive public discourse, highlighting conflict, sometimes falsely. (via Bill Clinton Interview 2012 - Esquire)

High-res This full page ad ran in the Washington Post on Sunday Oct 14th 1998 during the super charged Bill Clinton impeachment saga… GOP congressman Bob Livingston, who was in line to become the next Speaker of the House was forced to resign… The guy busy impeaching Bill Clinton, had been unfaithful to his own wife. It was blatant, humiliating hypocrisy. - Rachel Maddow (Watch)The man who replaced Bob Livingston? Now, Sen. David Vitter. You can’t make this stuff up.

This full page ad ran in the Washington Post on Sunday Oct 14th 1998 during the super charged Bill Clinton impeachment saga… GOP congressman Bob Livingston, who was in line to become the next Speaker of the House was forced to resign… The guy busy impeaching Bill Clinton, had been unfaithful to his own wife. It was blatant, humiliating hypocrisy. - Rachel Maddow (Watch)

The man who replaced Bob Livingston? Now, Sen. David Vitter. You can’t make this stuff up.

  • MSN

“I was in that room when Bill Clinton gave his press conference after the 1994 [mid-terms]. And we think of Obama in some ways being an inferior political performer to Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton was much worse in 1994. That was the press conference when he kind of plaintively said the president is still relevant. And seemed helpless, by stating that, seemed to expressed his selflessness.

I actually think Obama, compared to that performance, did pretty well today and was sufficiently contrite, reaching out in the ways he had to reach out. I mean, you know, a lot of people in the press would have liked him to show some greater degree of emotion. But you know, in fact, in terms of poise, which was actually really important today, he did a really good job.”

NY Magazine’s John Heilemann on Pres. Obama’s presser yesterday via MSNBC’s Hardball

“She got a big laugh when she said, how’s that hopey changey thing working for you now? What I want you to think about is something way more important. How’s that trickle down thing working for you for a long time?”

Bill Clinton on Sarah Palin and Republican economics 

“Clinton found out about the Gingrich affair and called Newt over to the White House for a private meeting between the two of them.

Clinton said, ‘You and I are alike.’ Which meant, shut up about Monica or I’ll start telling your story,” Armey said. “Newt and Clinton actually developed sort of a bond over it.

They had many meetings that we didn’t know about where they’d drink wine and smoke cigars and talk about their girlfriends.

It’s fascinating; why would you confess to your mortal enemy what you wouldn’t tell your closest friends?”

Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey claims Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich developed a “bond” over the affairs they had in office, swapping stories over wine and cigars. 

Responding to the allegation, Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler said simply, “It’s not true.”

Politico

“

One of the leading television commentators [Rachel Maddow] on one of our liberal cable channels said I was the best Republican president the country ever produced, which would come [as] quite a surprise to the Republicans, half of whom still think I’m a closet communist.”

“What she meant by that was I didn’t necessarily follow their ‘conventional wisdom,” he said. “I said, ‘What do you mean?!’”

”

In March, Maddow said, “What we ended up with is what we ended with, in my opinion, is the two terms of the Clinton administration, which is that Bill Clinton was probably the best Republican president the country ever had, if you look at the policies that he passed.”

Bill Clinton Strikes Back At Rachel Maddow - HuffPo - Politico