Gene Lyons and Joe Conason start The Hunting of the President with a chapter called "The Ghost of Lee Atwater." Apparently one of the last edicts issued by the man before he died of a brain tumor was that the upstart governor of Arkansas needed to be taken out before he amounted to anything or he'd be the number one thorn in the side of the conservative establishment as long as he lived. That was '91. The Today Show, January 27 1998, to Matt Lauer They made a lot of hay with that. It took about six years for David Brock to admit that he was a high-ranking lieutenant in that very same vast right wing conspiracy. He wrote Blinded by the Right and formed Media Matters for America. Richard Mellon Scaife alone spent $2m on Troopergate. The Republicans have been trying to "burn the witch" for 40 years now. Yet when Hillary mentions this, she's painted as a whiner. Is she as liberal as I'd like? Nope. But goddamn she's a survivor. People forget that Jimmy Carter ran as an outsider. Know what sucks about outsiders? They have no connections and can't get anything done. Given a chance, I'll vote for Sanders in a primary. Not that anyone has ever given a shit about the Washington primaries. Of course, I voted for GWB in the 2000 primaries for the simple reason that I figured McCain was the only credible candidate so...Hillary Clinton: "Well, I don't know if I've been that dramatic. That would sound like a good line from a movie. But I do believe that this is a battle. I mean, look at the very people who are involved in this — they have popped up in other settings. This is — the great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president."
Bringing Carter into this discussion is apt. Carter did this when the Southern Strategy was at its most effective. Sure, Nixon imploding helped him out, but he was also very popular, and his loosing in 1980 had as much to do with Ted Kennedy attacking him from the left in the primaries as with Reagan. Sure, no one knew how bad Reagan was going to turn out, but Carter might well have realigned the South if he had held on. I wonder if that's what Atwater was thinking of when he named Clinton a threat.People forget that Jimmy Carter ran as an outsider. Know what sucks about outsiders? They have no connections and can't get anything done.
Page 1. Before Clinton so much as investigated running for President, Atwater had already started a campaign to defeat him as governor so that Bush wouldn't have to deal with him in '92. Atwater stated publicly that the Democrats' only chance of retaking the presidency was a fiscally-conservative southern democrat and the only one of any merit was Clinton.