I don;t recall this at all, but this shows why BIll Clinton was such a master politician
Posted by
Brian (aka trav007)
Aug 5 '13, 07:25
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Certainly, as Cruz acknowledges, the public outcry over the shutdown was difficult for Republicans. (He mostly attributes this to Clinton’s superior political skills.) But he glosses over the fact that the shutdown sped Clinton on the path to reelection. Indeed, the shutdown played a role in a rather amazing suckerpunch at the 1996 State of the Union address.
During the speech, Clinton singled out for praise a man seated next to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton — Social Security Administration worker Richard Dean, who had survived the Oklahoma City bombing and rescued three people from the devastated Murrah Federal Building.
As Republicans stood and applauded Dean’s heroism, Clinton pulled out the knife, recounting how Dean was forced out of his office during the first shutdown and had to work without pay in the second one. “Never, ever, shut the federal government down again,” the president scolded.
(Then-House Minority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was so upset at Clinton’s gambit that he rewatched the speech on C-SPAN at 1:30 a.m. and literally screamed at the television, according to the 1997 book “Mirage,” by George Hager and Eric Pianin.)
After that, Clinton never lagged in the polls again.
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