The Hunting of the President2004

Sidney Blumenthal:
There was a sense among a certain social set in Washington, that Clinton was not their kind of person. He gave a little talk at a party that was given to welcome him to town when he was President Elect, and he noted that those who came to Washington weren't there to serve themselves, and shouldn't be. But, they were there to serve the people who sent them. Now, some of those at that party thought that he was criticizing them. And they didn't understand that he wasn't talking about them or parties, he was talking about the White House and the Congress. He was making a political statement, but this was a threat to the status system in Washington. And those who chose to accept it as such chose to reject Clinton as an interloper and outsider and to stigmatize him as white trash and here he is someone who is deeply conciliatory and moderate in his nature and yet arouses intense opposition - what's the source of the paradox. It has to do with the entrenched power that he's confronting and trying to change.