Liberty in America
columnist: rtbohan

Topic: Presidential Campaign 2008
Does Bill Want Hillary to Lose?

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As Hillary Clinton's most prominent supporter, Bill Clinton draws attention wherever he goes. The problem is that he hurts her candidacy as much as or more than he helps. Is it deliberate?

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by rtbohan
(Libertarian)
Monday, April 14, 2008

Bill Clinton has been told again by Hillary Clinton's campaign to stop defending her. He has been brought into the campaign to help her weakening race for the Democratic nomination becuase it is believed that he has a greater impact on the Democratic voters than she does. But since his entry into the campaign he has made seriously damaging mistakes.

Hillary Clinton began her race for the presidency with a clear lead in name recognition and funding over all of her rivals for the Democrati nomintion for President.  Her husband, of course, supported her candidacy but kept himself in the background.

That changed after Senator Obama's fundraising success on the internet made him her equal in funding and his narrow victory in the Iowa caucuses increased his name recognition and support.

Senator Clinton and her campaign managers, aware of the unpredictability of Iowa voters, were not dismayed by her loss and spoke of the primary in New Hampshire as their firewall, where the Obama uprising would be exposed as a flash in the pan.  Since Senator Clinton at the time enjoyed a double digit lead in New Hampshire, this seemed a safe plan. 

To the surprise of Senator Clinton, her lead in New Hampshire disappeared with her aura of invincibility, and with just days left before the primary, Senator Obama held a ten point lead in the polls.  With vigorous campaignin and a change in tectics, Senator Clinton managed to pull out a narrow victory in New Hampshire.

Although Senator Clinton's first place finish in New Hampshire was more impressive than the second place firnish by Bill Clinton which allowed him to proclaim himeself as "The Come Back Kid" and be hailed as the front runner for the nomination, Senator Clinton's national lead in the polls continued to erode.

 Senator Clinton had once held a thirty point lead in South Carolina, the state with the next contested primary, but her standing in the polls of the state were following the lead of the national polls downward. This was true particularly among African-American voters who began to see Obama as the first black candidate with a realistic chance to win the Democratic Party's nomination.  To bring the black voters back to her cause, the campaign enlisted the help of former President Clinton, who had always been popular with this group of voters.

The former President's ;first task was to go to South Carolina and stop the movement of black voters to Obama.  Mr. Clinton told the black voters that it was nice they had another black candidate for President, like Jesse Jackson.  But there was the electability question and Senator Obama would have to wait his turn.

This approach would have struck black voters in any state as condescending, but in South Carolina it was particularly disastrrous.  In the 1984 caucuses and the 1988 primary South Carolina Democrats had voted overwhelmingly for Jesse Jackson.  In 1988 Jackson had not only beaten Al Gore in South Carolina, he had beaten him in New York as well.  The black voters were told at that time that America was not ready yet for a black president.

In 1984, Fritz Mondale had at least the courtesey to discuss the possibility of the vice presidency with Jesse Jackson before deciding that a safer innovation would be to pick a woman for that position.  In 1988, in spite of an impressive show of support, Jackson was not a major player in the convention

In 1992, of course, Bill Clinton was nominated for President.  He decided that his innovative move would be to have two southern white males on the ticket and selected Al Gore.

This is not a history of the Democratic party and of his own record that Bill Clinton was wise to remind black voters about.  They were tired in any case of being told they would just have to wait for some other group to be included before their turn came.  In South Carolina, for the first time during the campaign, black women as well as black men gave solid support to Obama, and Senator Clinton carried only one county in the state.

Mr. Clinton was reprimanded by the campaign for his inept performance in South Carolina and for a while was relegated to the background of the campaign.  But the lack of real progress in the race meant that he had to go back on the trail again, and two new problems arose.  The first one was that Bill, when he drew a crowd, seemed to forget that it was not he but his wife who was the candidate.  He talked mostly in terms of what he had done and how much better off things were when he was President and very little in terms of how the election of his wife would improve condidtions.

The second problem arose because of his felt need to protect his wife (who had claimed to find rough all out campaigning was the fun part of politics) from any hint of criticism in the press.  The line of blaming the press for their problems has been a long time favorite of the Clintons.  But if Hillary possesses the toughness to be President, surely she does not need her husband to defend from minor criticisms in the press.  Again the former President agreed to behave himself and spend his increasing time on the campaign trail extolling the virtues of his wife rather than defending her from criticism for her shortcomings and errors.

But last week in Indiana, he did it again.  After Senator Clinton had been caught in a "misstatement" about her experiences in Bosnia, the former President again put on the mask of avenger of his wife's honor and castigated the press for calling her on the story.  This was particularly noteworthy and particularly ill-timed because the slight stir caused by the story had come and gone, and whatever damage it would do by itself had already been done.  Mr. Clinton would have been wiser to simply let the story be a part of the past.  Instead he revived discussion about the incident, and defended his wife on grounds that raised questions about his intent.

He said that a simple misstatement should not be considered important.  The fact that the "misstatement" was not a slip in an impromptu interview but read from a typed manuscript on three different occasions, once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once at night.  The timing is important, because a part of Mr. Clilnton's defense was that the statement was made after eleven p.m. and his wife was tired.  Since she has recently unveiled the ad asking who you want answering the telephone in the White House at 3 a.m., implying that Senator Clinton is addle-headed by eleven p.m. is not a good move.  He then pointed out that she is sixty years old.  Apart from being insulting to many voters who are sixty and older who aren't fogetful or liable to misstatements, this calls attention to his wife's age in a primary battle where she is losing because her opponent is captureing most of the youth vote.  And, should she win the nomination, it makes the age issue (which the Democrats are certainly planning to use against Senator McCain) somewhat ineffective.

Bill has been reprimanded again, and is confining himself this week to Hllary's theme of the week, which is the attack on Obama's elitism.  But this many egregious missteps by the former President raises a suspicion that, supportive as he appears to be of his wife;s campaign,  he wants her to lose.

Certainly, he must support her,; he owes her that after the support she gave him in his various scandals.  And he might well view the election of his wife as a way to insure that his presidency will be viewed by historians as a success.  But being the consort of the President will certainly make him a target for the Press and for the Republicans.

Clinton is compulsively secretive.  That is why he has insisted that so many of his presidential papers be kept confidential.  That is why the Clinton's waited so long to release their last tax returns.  And, if the private Bill Clinton of today is like the Bill Clinton of the White House years, he certainly does not want the press tracking his movements when he is away from the White House.

Questions about his current financial connections, and his connections in Colombia have already risen.  As the husband of the President, those connections and activities would become the constant source of political comment.

Maybe Bill is not interested in living in the White House again, especially in a subordinate role.  Maybe he wants to go on being a semi=public elder statesman, free to rake in money and to enjory himself in any way he wants without the publicity and pressure asociated with the White House.

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2008 rtbohan, all rights reserved.
Published: Monday, April 14, 2008
Last modified: Monday, April 14, 2008

The views expressed in this article are those of rtbohan only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. rtbohan is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.

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