Whatever happens in November, it will be no-win for Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton is destined to be disgruntled, no matter how Campaign '08 turns out.

That, at least, is the conclusion veteran political reporter and analyst Al Hunt reaches in his provocative new column for  Bloomberg News.

Hunt pulls no punches in assessing how the ex-president's efforts -- which many have seen as frequently ham-handed -- to promote Hillary Clinton's candidacy have done her little good and deeply bruised his own reputation.

"The most talented and resilient politician of this generation," Hunt writes, "has damaged his standing with gaffes, political miscalculations and a series of paranoiac, volcanic eruptions.

"A common question these days among political heavyweights -- including longtime Clinton devotees -- is this: How can a guy this smart act so dumb?"

What most intrigued us, though, was Hunt's view, at column's end, of how the three possible November outcomes ...

would affect the former White House occupant.

Least surprising is the GOP victory scenario: "Although he has a decent relationship with John McCain, given the continuing partisan resentment of Bill Clinton, he would remain largely in exile under a Republican president."

Most surprising is this: "If Hillary Clinton upsets the odds and wins the presidency, it's likely to prove an unhappy time for her husband. He would be scrutinized, politically and personally; political strains between the president and first spouse would emerge."

And then there is this: "A President (Barack) Obama would drive him crazy. If not irrelevant, it would make Clinton a secondary figure within his own country and party.

"There is little that would make him more frustrated or angrier."

The entire column can be read here.

The Bill Clinton/Obama dynamic also is touched upon in a New Yorker piece that, while giving the ex-president his due in connecting with average voters, also paints him as out of touch with the contemporary media environment. Reporter Ryan Lizza quotes an unnamed advisor to the Hillary Clinton campaign as saying: “I think this campaign has enraged him. He doesn’t like Obama.”

Rev. Jeremiah Wright likely is making it harder for Obama to win votes from some whites. Much as it would deeply aggravate Bill Clinton to hear, such an attitude toward his wife's rival may make it tougher for her to attract support from blacks.

-- Don Frederick

Comments

[Wondering]

Why is the Peter Paul fraud case where Hillary Clinton is being sued in LA not being reported in the LA Times? Isn't that news?

Allegations of false FEC filings in Clinton's first senate run.

Please someone write a story at least explaining why this isn't news.

[Jean]

WHY IS THE LA Times so blatently against Hillary. You guys need to GIVE IT A REST stop cramming Obama down our throats. The guy is a milktoast with no experience. It's as if the ignorant reporter who keeps writing this shit about Hillary decided to run for the senate and actually won....then in 2 years he said "I know I'll be President of the USA"....isn't that what Obama did. HOw arrogent is this guy....WHY DO YOU THINK HE COULD WIN or is this a guise to get John McCain elected by the Republican LA Times.

[Phil]

I say this as a decades-long Democrat: Bill Clinton wasted his presidency, and that was before his scandal-plagued 2nd term and impeachment. He was overrated as a politician in 1992 and remains so now. He was competing against a creatively-depleted Republican party, and he inherited the foundation for a boom, which he was smart enough not to stand in the way of. While he had Jimmy Carter's mind for detail and Ronald Reagan's affability, Clinton lacked a big-picture reference for what kind of country he wanted to shape. He managed, didn't lead, and only marginally. His misjudgments on healthcare, military preparedness, foreign policy and social unity were epic but masked by a rebounding economy at the time. Disgruntled? I hope so. Clinton deserves no special role in American life other than the minimal deference paid to even the least of ex-presidents. In Bill Clinton's marginal and tactical triangulated politics of the 1990s grew the roots of today's strategically crippled Democratic Party. With so much potential and a mountain of resources, the Clinton presidency concluded bereft of accomplishment of lasting value.

[Core Democrat]

Obama and Wright and all of their Anti-American rhetoric and racism. And Obama and his campaign pull the race card every chance they get and then call Bill Clinton racist. With sitting in a pew for 20 years and listening to Wright, how does Obama call Clinton the racist? If Obama had what Bill Clinton has, we would not be in this race right now. Obama would have won. And the more that Obama puts down President Bill Clinton and plays this ridiculous race card, the less respect we have for Obama and the Obama Campaign. We respect President Bill Clinton and what he did for the Democrat Party. And it is Obama that is going down and will take this whole Democrat Party with him. Obama is the most divisive and polarizing candidate in memory. He has managed to divide Democrats. That is pretty polarizing. Obama has a lot of problems ahead and he may want to reach out, but noone will be there. He is that devisive. And so arrogant, he cannot even see it.

[Core Democrat]

Obama, We are still waiting on your senate paper trail! We want transparency! Remember that. It is part of your campaign! Hillary did show all. So now it is your turn to put your words into action. Transparency...show your Senate schedules.

[Andrew]

Bill Clinton doing stupid, self destructive things...... why does this shock some people. This is a guy who was fooling around in the White House??

[chuck]

Maybe Clinton is behaving this way because he has brain damage from when he had open heart surgery. Apparently changed personality is a common result of bypass surgery. If this is the case, then he can't stop himself.

[Hal]

I supported Bill Clinton for eight years while he was President. As a Texas businessman (a political independent swamped by rightwing Republicans) I was an apologist for Bill Clinton. It almost certainly cost me business. I even thought Monica Lewinsky was strictly his own business--and Hillary's, of course. The colossal ego and outsized narcissism of Bill Clinton ballooned for me, however, with each step of his staged long walk at the year 2000 Demoncratic National Convention. Poor guy needs therapy. Bill alone is reason enough to oppose Hillary. There are other reasons aplenty, though. Go, Barack! Go Barack!

[goldenstate]

I like Bill Clinton. I thought he was a great President. When he left office, America had no debt and a lot of money in the bank. People had jobs. He has a lot of flaws, but he did a great job as President. He's helped a lot of people with his charity work. I think people need to remember that.

[DEBRA]

The Clinton's are survivors, Bill included. He's going to do just fine getting $500,000 a speech for many years to come. The Clintons are politically relevent yesterday, today and tomorrow......and could very well be the first married couple to each hold the highest office in our country. I for one, am supporting Hillary or McCain. Never Obama.

[Historian1956]

I can never figure out what exactly President Bill Clinton did during his presidency that was so great. He signed the horrendous Welfare Reform Act into law that saw so many single mothers having to travel up to 2 hours each way everyday to their mininum or slightly above minimum wage jobs. The housing market in the mid 1990's was so bad that today's crisis is being compared to IT! The tech bubble burst and jobs in so many areas disappeared right in front of our eyes, mine included.

Unspeakable world crises occured under his watch, such as Rwanda and the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, Chechnya, Somalia etc. and he did little to nothing in some cases and for the first time US troops were placed under the command of the UN, remember the "blue" helmets?

We won't even go into his sexual escapades and impeachment, since they have been discussed to death, but whenever I have asked a Clinton supporter then and now, to specify what he did that was so great, I'm answered with generalities and no specifics. His balanced budget was smoke and mirrors since it included the Social Security Trust Fund as an asset, when that is and should be separate and he left office with the country facing a recession that was handed over to Bush. (Not that I'm a Bush fan by no stretch of the imagination)

Could someone specify anything positive and long lasting from his presidency? I'd surely be grateful.

As far as his conduct during his wife's campaign, well, all it tells me is a) he might just be suffering from brain damage due to his heart operations and I am serious as was the person upstream concerning this and b) there will be only one president in the Clinton family, namely Bill, if he has anything to do or say about it. I personally think he is sabotaging her campaign in order to keep his legacy, whatever that will eventually be, intact and not have to share it with her.

I have to say I do feel sorry for Hillary. If she did stay with him throughout all his philandering, just so she could someday be president, she was duped, just like the rest of the country. Whatever you think about her, she doesn't deserve the treatment she has gotten in the past and is getting now from him during her campaign. No wife does.

[toby]

Right.

SO I can believe that everyone in the media thinks Bill Clinton has lost his mind or that everyone in the Media desperately doesn't want a woman for President, and they're going to EVERYTHING they can to make sure that doesn't happen.

I don't know...maybe if there was ONE editorial board that wasn't a bunch of old white guys (you can start with this page)..I'd believe their sincerity.

[Billi Billingsley]

Loved Bill and loved Hil til they became the racebaiting/ let'destroy the Democratic party team. The behavior of Bill in this political season is a man I do not recognize and Hiliary's sense of entitlement is gagging me and I believe tearing up the Democratic opportunity to turn this nation around after the disaster that is George W Bush. Hilliary is not owed the presidency because Bill "put it around" or because its time for a woman president. Hilliary seems to be working on the asumption that she stood by her husband during his sex scandal troubles and NOW she gets her due. Not so...the American public recognizes no such deal to " give " Hilliary Clinton the top job. I think Clinton knows she cannot win but she is willing to destroy the country to make her point and make John McCain the next president. Viva Monica Lewinsky!

[Blaine]

I don't blame Bill Clinton at all. Hillary is being viciously attacked by the far left and by traitor Democrats.Bill was justified in his counter-attacks. I don't believe that Bill used the race card, Obama is obviously Black and anyone can see that so I don't think anyone needs to be reminded of that. Bill is a little feistier with old age....but I admire him for standing up for his wife and running a strong, and resilient campaign.History will show that Clinton was one of the better presidents in the 20th century and nothing will change that.

[Blaine]

Jean said:

WHY IS THE LA Times so blatently against Hillary. You guys need to GIVE IT A REST stop cramming Obama down our throats. The guy is a milktoast with no experience. It's as if the ignorant reporter who keeps writing this shit about Hillary decided to run for the senate and actually won....then in 2 years he said "I know I'll be President of the USA"....isn't that what Obama did. HOw arrogent is this guy....WHY DO YOU THINK HE COULD WIN or is this a guise to get John McCain elected by the Republican LA Times.

Blaine said.

This is the best comment I read. The Liberal media are cramming someone we don't want and then get hysterical that Americans do not vote for Obama. They try to insult us by cramming us all into working class and low education. Most Hillary supporters I know have at least a graduate degree and are high income. The LA Times in their myopic zeal are going to help elect

[karupuk]

I think Clinton's Presidency had shown to us how He was getting a great achieve in his presidency.
It's time now to show another clinton that maybe show a better result from earlier clinton's era

[mvers]

Hillary has gone kitchen sink negative because she has nothing much positive. She and John McCain look a lot alike. She wants to debate but never gets to any more substance than my plan is better. She offers no hope for a better future of politics but claims politics as usual are the experience credentials a person needs for the presidency. That has certainly gotten us a long ways. Her supporter Gov. Rendell of PA. has spoken highly of Rev. Farrakhan and his Islamic nation. Why is this ok for Clinton and an attack on Obama? More of Hillary's double standard. She criticizes Obama for saying McCain would make a better President than Bush then Praises McCain as being a better commander in Chief than Obama. More double talk. Where is the difference between McCains bomb, bomb, bomb Iran and Hillary's I will annihilate Iran if it threatens any country in the mid east? Looks to me like with Hillary we will get the choice of male or female and the rest is about the same in thinking and practice. No thank you. Four more years of politics as usuall will not be a step in a positive direction. Hillary's politics of hatred is not something I wish to endure!

[Robby]

Hey Al

Read the New Yorker's piece on Bill Clinton. It's called gotcha journalism. And the LA Times is guilty of practice it too.

[John B Sheffield]

You never know IF and let's HOPE not that Hillary was the nomination you never know Bill could be VP!

Why are some Voters falling for "The Dynasty" and the politics what are the past.

[FALLIBM]

Bill Clinton can't be that stupid to run such a trailer trash campaign for the other half of the HillBilly gang. He must have purposely sabotaged her campaign and she was stupid enough to allow it to happen. The $109, 000,000 favor money that HillBilly Clinton received from South American governments is treason and should immediately be returned.

McCentury McCain will continue Bush's incredibly stupid third term. McCain is not smart and will need a dictionary to debate Harvard Scholar Barack Obama the clear uniter of the American People. The People love Barack Obama and he loves them back.

Barack Obama will become America's smartest president and most loved.

[Tooter]

While many people remember Bill's personal affairs in the White House, I remember people actually being able to make house payments. Being able to buy gas for $2.50 a gallon. We talk so much about the "hope" and the "future" that Obama can "give" to the American people. I think it's adorable how that's said and they're not able to really cite anything credible that would indicate that other than his sermons on a political platform. It's funny how Obama supporters would associate Hillary to Bill's misgivings and yet would bite their tongues when Obama's former preacher spits out venomous anti-American hateful sermons about our country. Why aren't you Obama supporters even questioning that Obama sat in front of this hateful preacher for years with his family? And after years of that, only now he'll be "denouncing" this guys hatred for America? Who's clinging to their faith now? It isn't small town America. It's you, Obama, sir. It's you.

[LCSusan]

While I have been less than happy with some of former President Clinton's comments and startled by the lack of political touch he has shown (since he is one of the great politicians of all time and I mean that as a compliment), I can also understand how surprised he must be at the lack of respect he and Hillary have received from a party that has only been in the WH eight out of the last 28 years and all eight of those years were Clinton years. (wow, that's a long sentence)

http://strictlyanecdotal.com

[mruth]

Bill is an albatross around Hillary's neck, but she hung him there. I waited for Hillary to emerge from his shadow, but she's only relied more and more heavily upon him, his politics, and his people.

A restoration of transparency in the executive branch and the reintroduction of constitutional limits on presidential power will NOT be gained under the Clintons. Bill is Hillary's conflict of interest.

[All-dem]

Hillary fans. Please stop trying to stretch Hillary's experience as some far more than it is. She was NEAR the president and I will never be able to get the picture of her on the Capitol steps backing the war for all she was worth. Also, after every primary, we see a different Hillary, based upon whatever primary she is facing in the next one, its simply called pandering. I cannot believe what she will say to denigrate any primary that she did not win in, like our choices were somehow flawed. And she should stop saying that she has the momentum, as if we who have voted prior to this would change our minds. SHE HAS LOST AND IS NOW SCORCHING THE EARTH THAT OBAMA MUST TREAD ON. Its almost as if she knows she has lost and would like to see McCain win so she can run again in 2012. She is the Ralph Nader of 2008. Her self-centered-ness will cost us all. Just watch, she will destroy all that democrats hold dear.

[JW]

Clinton's then and now:
The Clinton's are trailer-trash .....................they've always been trailer-trash and they will always be trailer-trash.

Is anyone really surprised that Bill has been acting like an idiot, lately? Or that Hillary acts like a Doberman on steroids when she attacks her political opponents? They're low life, trailer-trash. End of story.