Posted on 01/30/2004 6:55:38 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Ex-president Bill Clinton didn't sound particularly enthusiastic yesterday about his party's presidential front-runner, saying only that it wasn't "fair" to call Sen. John Kerry too liberal to win the White House without challenging the accuracy of that perception. "I don't think it's fair to say he can't be elected or that he's too far to the left," Clinton told reporters as he emerged from a Democratic Party strategy session on Capitol Hill. Clinton's failure to mount a stronger defense of Kerry stands in marked contrast to his earlier comments on behalf of Gen. Wesley Clark, whom he called in September a "brave" and "brilliant" Democratic Party "star" with a "sack full of guts." The ex-president also didn't help much with his characterization of Kerry as a mere "helper" rather than a leader during his own years in the White House. Focusing on himself rather than Kerry, Clinton explained, "All I know is that when I was trying to reverse 12 years of what we just had for the last four years, he was there to help." Touching on Kerry's 18 years of service in the Senate, Clinton was also less than effusive, describing the Massachusetts Democrat's record on national security, fiscal responsibility and welfare as merely "good." One source of friction between the candidate and the ex-president may be Kerry's comments earlier in the week while campaigning in New Hampshire, where he complained that Clinton hadn't been tough enough on Saddam Hussein. "Bill Clinton pulls our [weapons] inspectors out so we could bomb for four or five days. Which we did," Kerry told a Keene, N.H. crowd. But he quickly added, "That's it. End of story. Saddam Hussein is left alone. No inspectors go back in."
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