President Obama has done what many have already projected he would do: endorse Hillary Clinton for president. He’s the leader of the Democratic Party, Clinton has won the primary, and it’s the logical thing to do if you, as a Democratic president, want to jump into the 2016 to help your fellow party member beat Donald Trump in the fall. At the same time, let’s take a trip down memory lane, which I’m sure Trump and other Republicans have done, to when then-Sen. Obama pretty much called Clinton a political opportunist, who "would say anything to get elected" and “change nothing.”
Obama: "I’m Barack Obama, running for president and I approve this message."Announcer: "It’s what’s wrong with politics today. Hillary Clinton will say anything to get elected. Now she’s making false attacks on Barack Obama.
"The Washington Post says Clinton isn’t telling the truth. Obama 'did not say that he liked the ideas of Republicans.' In fact, Obama’s led the fight to raise the minimum wage, close corporate tax loopholes and cut taxes for the middle class.
"But it was Hillary Clinton, in an interview with Tom Brokaw, who quote 'paid tribute' to Ronald Reagan’s economic and foreign policy. She championed NAFTA –- even though it has cost South Carolina thousands of jobs. And worst of all, it was Hillary Clinton who voted for George Bush’s war in Iraq.
"Hillary Clinton. She’ll say anything, and change nothing. It’s time to turn the page. Paid for by Obama for America."
In fact, during the 2008 primaries, the attack from the Clinton campaign about Obama giving Republicans high-fives over economic policy was brought up during the South Carolina debate, in which tensions boiled over in a prolonged back-and-forth between the two candidates.
The whole ad centers on the fact that Hillary is dishonest and untrustworthy. Dishonest in her attacks on then-Sen. Obama, and not to be trusted concerning changing the dynamics of Washington. In 2016, Hillary Clinton is still facing the same problems with her persona, as voters don’t trust her, especially after her serial failure to neutralize the story about her private email server, which held over 2,000 emails with classified information. She said it was “absolutely permissible,” it was not. She said she got approval from the State Department to setup this unorthodox system, she did not, and if she had, State Department officials wouldn’t have signed off on it. There’s also the issue over her transcripts from speeches she gave to Wall Street banks; she’s refused to release them. All of this falls right in line regarding how supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders think of her, along with Republicans who can’t stand her.
Now, her former primary opponent, who said all of those things about her, has given his endorsement. Yet, it doesn’t negate the fact that even Obama thought Clinton wasn’t trustworthy to do what needs to be done and yesterday’s news.
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