It seems Bill is still not really helping the Hillary Campaign.
Got an email from a reader directing me to Striken Fancy, who had linked to The Agitator who wonders if Bill Clinton is deliberately trying to sink Hillary?
I thought at the time that Bill Clinton’s comments comparing Obama to Jesse Jackson were tacky and self-defeating, but I hadn’t really given them much more thought than that. But this guy made some interesting points.Bill Clinton has mastered southern politics all his life, the activist said. He knows all the buzz words, he knows all the code words, he knows where you do and don’t tread. Clinton, the activist said, has been on the right side of racial politics his entire political career. No one that savvy slips up the way Clinton did. It had to have been a calculated move. And because it was a calculated move, it was a deeply cynical, baldly race-driven move. Clinton, the activist said, was signaling to white voters that Obama isn’t his own man. Clinton was giving white voters the okay to marginalize Obama–to put him aside as just another stooge the party has to prop up to appease the black folk, but not someone they ought to take seriously. This, the activist told me, was unforgivable.
Agitator goes on: So why would Clinton do it? Well, maybe he doesn’t want his wife to be president.
Stricken Fancy recalled what I had written right after Thanksgiving, ‘07:
Mrs. Clinton, as the “first woman president” would also be a “wartime” president. If she is elected to the Oval Office, her presidency would immediately be more historically compelling and relevant than Mr. Clinton’s ever could be. And, as someone said recently - I can’t remember where I heard it, probably talk radio - if Hillary, as CIC, takes action in the war on terror, particularly if she does so in response to provocation, everything she does may well be measured against all of the provocations to which Bill did not clearly respond in the 1990’s.
Possibly President Clinton’s weird “misspeaks are designed to do more harm than good for his wife. I can’t say for sure - maybe on some sub-conscious level it’s true. Clinton has always had something of a self-destructive streak in him; it’s part of what makes him human and compelling and - for some - endlessly fascinating.
I went on in that piece to say that Hillary was simply campaigning stupidly, but that was well before Clinton did his “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina” schtick. What do you think - was I on to something? Is Bill trying to sabatoge his wife’s campaign?
WELCOME: Pajamas Media Readers. While you’re here, please look around. Today we’re also talking about Original Sin, blood covenants and foreskins…it’s a Lenten thing!
February 12th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
I can believe Bill has some unconscious (or semi-conscious) resistance to Hillary making the White House. However, I don’t think he was freelancing or talking off the top of his head when he made those remarks. Dick Morris (admittedly, not necessarily the most unbiased observer) wrote around the time that Clinton was making his remarks that Hill&Bill *wanted* to turn the primaries into a race-based contest. They thought they’d marginalize Obama, dominate the white vote and win.
Oops! They miscalculated. They didn’t realize how turned off Dem voters would be and I think may have had little idea how not-that-fond of them many Dems are. The elders of the Dem establishment turned against them. Obama’s been able to make at least some inroads among white voters.
Not by any means discounting the weird, dysfunctional Clinton psychologies, but I think it’s entirely possible they just made a mistake. And, part of the mistake my be thinking they’re smarter than they are.
Also, I don’t particularly buy the “Bill Clinton, most brilliant politician ever” thing. Gifted, sure. Also: glib and lucky. For such a brilliant politician, he never got 50% of the popular vote - without Ross Perot, he’d be an asterisk. Then, 49% against Bob Dole, one of the worst campaigns ever!
They’re tough mud wrestlers, intelligent, experienced and, mostly, ruthless. But, never make a mistake? I dunno about that.
February 12th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Some great thinking and theories there Anchoress, but I think Bill is way too power hungry to give up the power of the oval office. Your take on Hillary being the war time president vs Bill is most interesting. I would believe that he might be very jealous (which I wouldn’t have thought about without your analysis), but I still don’t think he would give up his 4-8 more years to have celebrity white house sleepovers and fly all over planet earth on Air Force One at our expense. After all, he would have his own legacy in “first husband.” Even more so, think about it if Hillary doesn’t get in; they are for the most part, off of the world stage, and we know the Clintons don’t like THAT. I also remember how mad he was when she lost Iowa. That anger was too real to have been faked. Don’t you think there is also a certain “validation” of his presdency if or if not she gets in. As you often point out, Bill needs to keep “felling the love”, and he can only do that on the world stage.
February 13th, 2008 at 1:02 am
Meanwhile, across the aisle –
Wow! What great facilities they have here on the Titanic! What a great ship this is! Yep, this is the best ship ever — sure to beat every other ship ever built!
What an unmitigated DISASTER these pro-McCain people have brought down upon us. You think Hillary has been getting pounded these last few days, losing by 30 point margins, 21 states to 10? Just wait till Obama starts popping McCain upside the head, and dancing and weaving, like a young Mohammed Ali at his prime against an over-the-hill, past-his-prime old-timer who can barely get up off the stool.
The comparison of Obama’s roaring victory rally with 20,000 strong and enthusiastic people ready to march, with McCain’s monotone funeral wake at a hotel conference room with a couple dozen bystanders and a few moderate dinosaurs standing behind him, could not be starker. An inspiring leader McCain ain’t.
All those centrist voters that McCain is counting on — those that made him supposedly the “most electable” — are all going to run to catch the Obama love train. Meanwhile, the McCainiacs are doing their best to alienate the right, rather than reconciling. So, those left behind will have little to no excitement or enthusiasm for “their guy.” Anybody really want to give their time or money to this sinking ship?
It’s going to be ugly.
February 13th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
I’m not sure Bill Clinton is completely conscious of his motivations. Let’s look at the facts.
He is 60+ years old. He has had bypass surgery and is probably on multiple medications to keep the pipes clear. He has led a very - ahem - active life, not conducive to clear thinking or good health. He has at one time been the most beloved figure for the democrats, and is turning into a not-so-fond memory for them.
I honestly think some of his problems right now are physiological. You see this a lot in cardiac patients who have to make major shifts in their lives to accommodate their new limitations. The medications don’t help - they have definite emotional and mental side effects.
The culmination seems to be a teetering from one side to the other regarding his wife’s aspirations for high office. He can see both sides, and doesn’t love anyone except himself enough to put aside his own desires to see them succeed and perhaps surpass him.
Really, this couple is pitiful. The spiritual angst that lies in wait for Hillary if she is rejected and tossed aside. The spurning of Bill’s “legacy”, whatever that is.
Oh well. We reap what we sow, and I say that with trepidation because I’m not the most perfect person in the world, either.
February 13th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
The unmitigated disaster that is coming down the pike is worse — INFINITELY WORSE — than we can imagine. I had not thought about it before, but this commenter makes some great points (partially excerpted here) –
Do We Really Want Another Black President After The Events Of Deep Impact?
. . . Have we learned nothing from the tragic events of 1998, when, under the watch of President Morgan Freeman, this nation was plunged into chaos, and hundreds of millions of people died at the hands of the deadly Wolf-Beiderman space rock? The mere fact that this country is even considering putting another black man, Barack Obama, in the Oval Office proves that we have not.
We can’t deny the facts, people. All we will get by electing an African-American is Texas-size space particles crashing into the Earth’s surface, mega-tsunamis that barrel into the Appalachian Mountains, and 6.6 billion dead people. . . .
February 13th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
I tend more toward JudithS’s analysis. We had Ed Rendell mouthing the same line (see link to Hugh Hewitt’ Blog)
[edited to insert link - admin]
We had Bob Johnson also following the same line.
[edited, etc - admin]
These are merely two of many examples of this tactic.
Now this does not mean that Bill is completely conscious of his motivations as Mommynator pointed out. One of the great mysteries to me is how the Bill & Hill relationship works. But when you are so lustful for power I guess you’ll over look many things.