Did anyone really believe Bill Clinton would stand silently in the background during his wife's presidential campaign? The guy is a born political brawler. His wife is in the political fight of her life with Barack Obama. Bill has joined the fray.
I've always found Bill Clinton to be too clever by half. This highly intelligent Rhodes scholar still effects the "aw shucks", country bumpkin routine. Give it up Bill. Washington, DC and New York City run in your veins, not Hope, Arkansas. You haven't lived in Arkansas for 16 years. Then there is the parsing twisting of words. Case in point: Bill looked dead eye into the camera and told America, "I never had sexual relations with that woman" (i.e., Monica Lewinsky). What Bill meant by use of the phrase was that he never had vaginal intercourse with that woman. In Bill's clever lexicon, fellatio does not count as sex. Whatever Bill. You lost my respect at that instant. You've lied your way out of so many jams that I'm not sure you know what the truth is.
Which brings us back to the Clinton campaign in South Carolina. The back drop: Bill has been attacking Barack Obama for weeks now. His main line of argument has been that Barack lacks experience. That Hillary is the intellectual, experienced operator this country needs. The jabs keep coming from Bill. He has accused Obama of praising Ronald Reagan. "[Obama] said President Reagan was the engine of innovation and did more, had a more lasting impact on America than I did," Clinton said. Link. That's not what Obama said and Bill is no dummy. Obama struck back in the press and won in South Carolina garnering over 80% of the black vote.
Was this blowback from Bill's attacks of Obama? A fair question. This is how the master manipulator responded:
Reporter question: "What does it say about Barack Obama that it takes two of you to beat him?"
Bill Clinton response, "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina twice, in ‘84 and ‘88, and he ran a good campaign. And Sen. Obama’s run a good campaign here; he’s run a good campaign everywhere. He’s a good candidate with a good organization." Link.
Did the question refer in any way to Jesse Jackson? Can you say damning with faint praise? Bill knifes Obama in the gut by comparing his win yesterday in South Carolina to that of Jesse Jackson and then tries to wipe his fingerprints off the knife by praising Obama as a "good candidate with a good organization." Jesse Jackson never was elected to an official office at any level of local, state, or federal government. Jesse Jackson had zero experience as an elected official yet ran for president of the United States. Meaning Jesse Jackson had absolutely no chance of being elected president of the United States. Yet Bill Clinton compares Senator Barack Obama to Jesse Jackson. Bill is playing the race card, plain and simple. Through the comparison, Bill is clearly inferring that Obama is the candidate of black America and, thus, cannot be elected president. Bill paints Hillary as the main-stream candidate and Barack as the candidate of a single racial constituency. The polls tell us otherwise. Obama is drawing significant support from other demographics.
In other news today, "Caroline Kennedy has thrown her support behind Sen. Barack Obama, calling him the presidential candidate most capable of carrying on the legacy of her late father, John F. Kennedy." Link. Bill will not succeed in painting Barack Obama as a "clean and articulate" version of Jesse Jackson. America has grown up. Such transparent race bating no longer works. George Bush made us forget why we disliked Bill Clinton. The return of Slick Willie refreshes our memory.
JJR 1-27-2008
(Political Commentary)
Update: Apparently I was not the only who thought the Clintons played the race cared in South Carolina. "One prominent superdelegate [Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.] who is also the highest-ranking black in Congress told ABC News that the racially tinged way in which critics say the Clintons conducted their campaign in South Carolina is driving black superdelegates into the arms of Sen. Barack Obama." Black Superdelegates Shift to Obama. (2-15-08).
Did anyone really believe Bill Clinton would stand silently in the background during his wife's presidential campaign? The guy is a born political brawler. His wife is in the political fight of her life with Barack Obama. Bill has joined the fray.