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Why Bill Clinton Lashes Out
Here’s an interesting bit from Matt Bai’s upcoming New York Times Magazine article (not online just yet) on how Bill Clinton’s legacy has shaped Democratic politics and the current presidential race. Over the past few weeks, Bill has been a bit more aggressive
than usual, most recently telling
Charlie Rose that electing Barack Obama would be like “rolling the dice” on America’s
future. Here’s one reason why:
As he doused his fries in ketchup, Clinton told me that he
was generally more inclined to want to ‘‘pop back’’ at Edwards or Obama than
his wife was, but he had to remind himself that Hillary was plenty capable of defending
herself. There have been reports in the last few weeks about Clinton’s lashing
out at strategists and meddling in his wife’s campaign; insiders say this has
been exaggerated, but some of Clinton’s friends and former advisers told me
that the attacks from rivals irritate Clinton a lot more now, when they are directed
at his wife, than they did when he was running. (‘‘As a candidate, he was
absolutely bulletproof — it never bothered him,’’ says Paul Begala, one of Clinton’s 1992 advisers.)
What he takes even more personally — and should, really — is the unmistakable
premise that underlies the sniping, that somehow his own presidency was bad for
the country and the party.
It's true: Every time Obama talks about a new generation of leaders or "moving on" or overturning "textbook" Democratic politics, Bill must feel it. That's why Clinton's best defense so far has been to say that he was a young upstart once, too: “I was, in terms of experience, was closer to Senator Obama, I
suppose, in 1988 when I came within a day of announcing,” he said in an interview in September. He said he chose not to run that year because “I really
didn’t think I knew enough, and had served enough and done enough to
run.”
In other words, Clinton was the party's great new hope, too -- but he was smart enough to wait. It sounds like he's defending Hillary. But really, he's defending himself.
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