Is he talking about breaking from his party’s stance? As far as I remember Clinton, as a candidate in 1992, ripped on Sister Souljah and her music. I didn’t think it was that much of a diversion from his party, not on the same level that Bush would be doing if he does what Friedman suggests.
Was there anything else to the Sister Souljah chronicle that I’m missing or forgot about?
Mods: I didn’t put this in IMHO because I’m looking to see if there’s a specific episode or incident that I’m forgetting. If it’s just a matter of degree, then that answers my question.
Your link requires registration at The Times, so you might want to provide a little more context for the article (without engaging in wholesale copyright violation, of course).
This CNN article from 1999 has an in-depth discussion of the Sister Souljah speech, including comments from its author, Paul Begala. It appears that the speech was considered a major step in Clinton’s campaign to distance himself from certain traditional Democratic positions.
Sounds to me like one of Friedman’s weaker parallels. Clinton was saying, in essence, that lefties shouldn’t automatically support lefty positions in a knee-jerk fashion. Sometimes, even folks on “our” side are just dead wrong about things. I don’t think that’s really what Friedman is asking Bush to do.