Posted on 01/28/2008 6:39:49 AM PST by jdm
The Hillary Clinton campaign hasn't set that question to song, not while the Sound of Losing still rings in their ears from their disastrous showing in South Carolina. After losing by more than a 2-1 margin in the bellwether state, the campaign now knows that they cannot afford to have Bill Clinton shooting his mouth off on the national stage. The one man they assumed could be their greatest asset has suddenly become an albatross, and no one knows how to cut it from around their necks:
Democrats inside and outside the Clinton campaign on Sunday debated and in some cases bemoaned the degree to which former President Bill Clinton’s criticism of Senator Barack Obama last week had inflicted lasting damage on his wife’s presidential candidacy.“I think his harsh style hurt Senator Clinton — it polarized the campaign and polarized the electorate, and it also made it harder for Senator Clinton’s positive message to break through,” said Celinda Lake, a Democratic strategist and pollster who is not affiliated with any of the candidates.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign team, seeking to readjust after her lopsided defeat in South Carolina and amid a sense among many Democrats that Mr. Clinton had injected himself clumsily into the race, will try to shift the former president back into the sunnier, supportive-spouse role that he played before Mrs. Clinton’s loss in the Iowa caucuses, Clinton advisers said.
But Democrats said it was not clear whether the effects of Mr. Clinton’s high profile could be brushed away by having him modulate his campaign style. They said Mr. Clinton had upset some of the central themes of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, including her appeal to women and her assertions that her time in the White House during the 1990s amounted to vital experience rather than a link to a presidency defined as much by scandal and partisan divisions as by its successes on fronts like the economy.
A sea change has taken place since the primaries began less than four weeks ago. At first, people just whispered that Bill Clinton needed to back off a little. He then got criticized for a couple of specific eruptions. Now even the New York Times -- Bill's hometown paper and one of his biggest boosters -- openly writes about the desperation in the campaign, and the sense of futility felt about the chances of repairing the damage to the campaign.
In fact, Bill's presence now worries Team Hillary that he has begun to overshadow her, making her look weak. His attacks leave the impression that she cannot run on her own, and/or that she can't control Bill. That beats the alternative, though, which the New York Times doesn't mention in its report. It's more than possible that the two planned this good cop/bad cop routine, with Bill filling the role of the VP nominee in being Hillary's proxy for negative campaigning. That would make her less weak, but a lot more cynical and conniving.
Mainly, Democrats and voters in general have been treated to a blast from the past with the Clintons over the last few weeks. We have seen all of the bitter partisanship, the character assassination, and the drive to win at all costs -- but this time directed at Democrats rather than Republicans. As I noted on Saturday, leading progressive voices have awoken as if from a dream and begun connecting the dots to the Clinton era, wondering if conservatives had it right in the 1990s.
As long as the Clintons remain on the national stage, this kind of politicking -- the smears, the lies, and the prevarications -- will also remain. If Democrats want to associate themselves with it, they have to make that choice. No one can pretend later that they didn't know about the problem like they did after 2000.
Give him his own "Rock Of Love" show on VH1 where he can be surrounded by T & A.
The slights, the faux pas/racially insensitive slams at Barack Obama by Billy, Hilly, various underlings, were all a put-up job.
The Clintons knew -- they knew they didn't have a realistic shot at catching Obama in South Carolina. So they racialized the contest -- polarized it -- themselves, on purpose.
Reason? Make Obama a racial candidate by ensuring blacks voted for him overwhelmingly.
That will poison him in the subsequent big-state primaries elsewhere.
The last thing they wanted to have happen, was an Obama win with a 50-50 split of black and white votes. If he had to win, they wanted to make sure he had a huge supermajority of black votes.
We've seen it happen just in the last few days: Bill and Hillary plotting out their primary campaign just the way Theo Bilbo or Big Jim Eastland would have done it, 60 years ago, pegging their future on a racist proposition.
Thanks to all of you for your quick response. I have had a bad morning or I would have remembered the 12th. Coffee was late also, and I started imagining a nightmare senario of Bill as VP(shudder) and let myself get carried away! Thanks again, and thank our early leaders for having the good sense to write the 12th amendment!
You're welcome.
While I regret re-opening your morning nightmare, consider that Bill doesn't have to be VP in order to do damage. He would have all the power he needed as First Husband...
Don't you mean as "First Laddie?" I love that name, we had a dog named "Lad" once, every time I hear that name, I see a bog ol' slobbering collie, lookin' dumb as a rock, but ready to chase any ball you throw!!
See Bill.
See Bill fetch.
Fetch, Bill, fetch!
Bill Clinton, with a few exceptions, has been the kiss of death for anyone and everyone he campaigns for.
There is no way that Hillary or her advisers can control him or keep him off the campaign trail, it’s what he lives for.
Bill Clinton is both Hillary’s best and worst nightmare and in the end may do more harm than good for her.
Wouldn't that be too affectionate?
How about "First Scumbag"?
I think the Clinton Fatigue meme is deadly for Bubba. With leading Dems signaling they dont want him back in the WH, I suspect Hillary is in deep doo doo.
Poor Bill thought he was the most popular boy at the democratic party and has found out this is his most psychotic delusion.
Nobody's looking at Hillary and saying, she's just not igniting the base. She can't get the country to become enthusiastic about her. Her deficiencies can't carry the nation into the future. Nooooo, they have to blame...POOR BILL !!!
Mrs. Clinton will even sacrifice her loyal spouse to gain political advantage.
The same way the Clintons have always ‘solved’ their problems, Arkaniside. Bill should take one, like a good soldier, for the team. This way Billary will get the sympathy vote of the mourning widow.
The Clintons always manage to get around little things like the Constitution or “rules”. “Is” prohibited? In that case, the meaning of “is” is “isn’t”, don’t we know anything?
The coffee hasn’t kicked in. The 12th was adopted after FDR
Now THERE’S an idea we can all support!
What ever. FDR did us a favor by being re-elected so many times.
bump
“No former President can hold an office from which he could become President again, such as VP.”
Guess that makes him ineligible to be Speaker of the House, should he become a Congressman. And we could include a few other offices in the line of succession.
LOL!
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