Did you hear that? Bill Clinton's head explodes over Obama and Vanity Fair

Well, talk about going out with class. Ex-President Bill Clinton just went off again during a campaign appearance in South Dakota. The shock waves should be rippling through Chicago and Kansas City any minute.

He was asked about that, shall we say, unflattering Todd Purdum Vanity Fair article again. Talk about smoking near a propane tank. KA-BOOM! went the former leader of the free world about Purdum, which would be expected.

"Sleazy." "Dishonest." "Slimy." "Scumbag."

And those were the nice words, as Clinton firmly gripped and refused to release the hand of the inquiring reporter, who was none other than Huffington Post's Mayhill Fowler.

Remember her? Swanky private fundraiser. San Francisco mansion. Barack Obama. Inartful remarks. Bitter small towns clinging to religion and guns.

The Vanity Fair article quotes former Clinton aides criticizing the ex-president for surrounding himself with questionable friends and behaving/speaking in a way that hurt Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

Of course, Bill Clinton denies having read....

... the offending article. They all must do that. It's meant as an insult to the writer, see? Their writing is beneath reading by anyone as important as the outraged subject matter.

Even though by denouncing the article again Clinton is driving thousands more people to read it. He'll soon be getting a handwritten thank you letter from the Vanity Fair circulation director.

Ah, but this time Clinton could not resist dragging someone else into the path of his wrath. Maybe you can figure out who Clinton means "didn't do anything about it":

"It's part of the national media's attempt to nail Hillary for Obama," Clinton continued. "It's the most biased press coverage in history. It's another way of helping Obama. They had all these people standing up in this church cheering, calling Hillary a white racist, and he didn't do anything about it.

"The first day he said 'Ah, ah, ah well.' Because that's what they do -- he gets other people to slime her. So then they saw the movie they thought this is a great ad for John McCain -- maybe I better quit the church. It's all politics. It's all about the bias of the media for Obama."

Yes, it sure sounds like the Clinton and Obama camps are drawing closer together, doesn't it, and letting bygones be bygones? Bodes well for the general election campaign. Bill's over it already. Clearly.

And what a shocker that all these moves and criticisms are "all politics." Imagine. Politics. Near the end of an American presidential primary campaign. That Clinton is losing.

You can read the whole account here. And there's audio here. Then, amazingly after his rant Clinton told Fowler this whole business "didn't bother me."

Obviously. He's surely telling the truth this time.

(UPDATE: Late today Clinton aides excused their leader by saying he'd been “understandably upset" concerning "an outrageously unfair article.” However, they admitted, the language used about the magazine writer by the former president of the United States and the candidate's spouse “was inappropriate and he wishes he had not used it.”

(So forget everything you just read. Except the part about how the article didn't bother Clinton at all.)

-- Andrew Malcolm

Photo: Associated Press

Comments

[cnnr]

Actually, Iowa Doc, the reporter brought the post cardiac surgery thing in his Vanity Fair article.

[toby]

In taking Hillary down, is turning me off the Democratic party in general.

This would be a great year for a 3rd party.

[hillaryis44]

"All this bad mouthing of the most successful Democratic president in the last 65 years."

If she were the most successful Democrat of the past 65 years don't you think she would be winning the nomination? She is not winning the nomination nor is she winning the "popular vote" - she even had to change the language around that particular lie/claim today.

You Hillary supporters haven't seemed to notice. But everyone has politely stood by to give her a graceful exit and pretend to "fight for every vote," lay claim to a specious accounting of the popular vote, and act like Michigan was fair. But none of that is true and a reasonable fifth grader knows it.

[Rufus Mubatu]

Barack gonna take the honky down!

[Eric R]

Andrew Malcolm! I love your stylish, tongue-in-cheek, superior journalism! This one, which I would refer to as the "imploding" Clinton head is just a classic! Delightful to find something out of the PresCamp08 that actually lifts your spirits. Thank you!

(Well, thank you, Eric.)

[John]

Malcom, your rants on the Clintons are as predictable as a bad penny turning up when you least want one. If you ever decide to write anything good or positive about the Clintons, you would probably give your Clinton hating fan base (including Eric) a bad case of indigestion.

[San Diego Doc]

Post by-pass cognitive dysfunction and personality disorder is compounding Bill's existing sociopathology by limiting his ability to filter his actions and speech. Expect both to become more inappropriate than ever. The man is a time bomb anywhere near any campaign.

[D Major]

Goodbye Billary. The jig is up!

[Vita Bohme]

President Clinton has it very right. This is astounding media bias in favor of one candidate over another.

But it is not unprecedented and it's not even "the worst" media bias we've ever seen. There he has it wrong. He must not have been paying attention to Kerry vs. Bush in 2004, where even Evan Thomas admitted the press was in the hole for Kerry and could deliver "15%" for him, which - given what a horrid candidate Kerry was - it seems they did.

The Clintons can't take being disliked by the press because for the last 15+ years the press slobbered all over them and covered for them.

They couldn't never have handled the last 7 years of overt hatred that the press has demonstrated toward President Bush.

And I'll tell you what...seeing now that oil prices were $56 a barrel in 2006 and unemployment was 4.5% before that election...I'm not so sure I want the "change" the Dems are offering me, anymore.

We can say anything we want, but facts are facts, and the Bush economy was not a bad economy; we just didn't want to give it credit. And he hung in there and stayed true to his vision which is more than Obama has demonstrated he can do. Hillary can do it. But I don't know if her vision is not toxic.

[michael m]

imagine obama in the oval office, hillary pounding on one doorand bill pounding on the other; as we see now, even when it's time to admit defeat and shake hands, both clinton s are classic spoil sports: play by the rules? sure; oh, i'm losing? let's change the rules so i might win; oh, i still lose? well it must be everybody else's fault- right-wing conspiracies, biased media, sexism, today from bill a rigged primary, you name it; like little kids who don't get it their way all they can do is stamp their feet and vent; that would be a great set of advisors to have pounding on the white house doors

[Registered No Party]

Having read the Vanity Fair piece, the Huffington Post's Mayhill Fowler's account, and listened to the audio, I have an observation. Ms. Fowler may have compromised the interview at the beginning by phrasing her opening question:
"Mr. President, what do you think about that hatchet job somebody did on you on Vanity Fair at the end of the race?"
This seems an ingratiating way to win Clinton's confidence that he's speaking to someone who views the Purdum piece the same way he does.
Perhaps Fowler truly views the Purdum piece as a hatchet job. She doesn't say so in her report.
Regardless of her true opinion of Purdum's work, or whether she even read the piece, she did a good job getting the quotes.
But she may want to consider a less biased opening question in future.

[Mike]

This Clinton/ Obama thing is out of hand. Does anyone even care that there is still bickering?

Vote for Ron Paul... Its time we had a grown up in the Oval Office.

[bmw]

Dignity certainly isn't one of former President Clinton's virtues. Let's see if Hilary has any now that it's all over for her.

Unfortunately for America, even our elected officials are truly "representative" of our society - it's always somebody else's fault why it went the way it did. President Bush will probably someday issue a statement that Iraq became a debacle because God was a slimebag for not "standing with His man" - when God never was leading us into this mess in the first place.

[Adnora]

Clinton did more to hurt blacks and poor whites than any president. Only he did it with a good ole boy wink and a smile and was thought to be a friend of the black community. Slick Willie indeed. He had the good fortune of being in office during the dot com bubble. So he gets undeserved credit for that period of American financial prosperity. I hope he and Hill are out of politics for good, but something tells me we haven't seen/heard the last of them. He an Hill are fighters for what they want, and they will try to mow down anything/one standing in their path. Bypass surgery hasn't got a thing to do with their destructiveness; egomania has always led them..

[John Reche]

"Sleazy." "Dishonest." "Slimy." "Scumbag."
I thought he was talking about the Clinton dynasty

[Inaru]

I support Obama, and I agree the media wants to keep this feud going between the Clintons and Obama - it makes them a lot of money so long as we keep watching and they keep selling ads.

Yes, the Republicans would have fought dirty, no, we don't need to go there, after the primary's good as done. At the end of a hard-fought match, the opponents shake hands and give each other props for a good fight. It's time, and to hell with media's need to feed itself and fill us with hate to keep looking for more fuel against each other - from them!

It's clear, volatile tempers are not desirable near the nuclear button, they're not good for presidents or vice-presidents. Let's move on. It's Clinton's supporters who matter now. Baiting Bill or Hillary is not a sport for Dems. Let's show some class.

[Jack]

The question remains - is Hillary the best candidate for Presidency or not. No one seems to be asking that question - more experienced, more intelligent, and more knowledgable in a broader range of areas that either of the men - she got pushed to the side by a somewhat vindictive media and narcissim on the part of black americans. Unfortunately, the national good was also swept to the side and some bloggers like Andrew would like to pretend it didn't happen.

Yet the fact remains it did happen. And we should ask why did did it happen? And the answer is ignorance of the desparate situation the nation is in. Ordinary citizens might be excused for not knowing but people who claim its their job to be in the know and don't bother to read a book or two are good candidates for a horse whipping.

[Elizabeth]

Hillary supporters cannot understand why she seemingly has received "unfair press." In my short life, I have noticed that people who have kind words to say about others tend to receive kind words. Hillary spent this year (since January) attacking Obama viciously, and sometimes quite hatefully. Bill joined in whenever he could. Because of their negative attacks, they did receive negative press. It makes sense to me. You get what you dish out. Thank God it's over.

[East Side Love]

This is another case of the media searching for conflict, searching for higher ratings as the election season winds down. Reporters - or so called journalist, need to get a life and do some real reporting - on the economy, the school budget cuts, the war in Iraq (remember that?), and stop turning their front pages or lead stories into a tabliod!

[tommy boylan]

Hillary Clinton should run as an indenpendent. As for Bill Clinton no one as done more for the people of Africa than him,for anyone to call him a racist is disgusting.
With the same rules as the GOP Hillary would have run away with the nomination.
The Vanity Fair article is a hit job,naming not one single source. Hillary owes the Democratic Party nothing and would win as an independent.

[J. Murphy]

"Electability," anyone?

This is the tiniest fraction of what we would have seen in the general election with Clinton as the nominee. Can't believe people have so easily forgotten.

Give me Jeremiah Wright any day of the week. That'll blow over. Bill is the gift that keeps on giving. To the GOP.

[Jemille]

Bill Clinton has done more to hurt black people than any other president. The facts are legion. However, he has bee very adept at painting a picture to please his needed constituency and many people are very superficial students of American politics, so he carried off his great scam. He is intelligent, he is a smooth talker and he is willing to sell out to the corporate interests (NAFTA, CAFTA, 3 Strikes, welfare elimination, workfare enforcement, etc.) So is Hillary following in his footsteps. As to native intelligence, the Clintons and Obama are near equals, although I tend to think Obama may be a bit smarter than the Clintons.
When it comes to honesty there is no contest. Clintons gave up on honesty when they reigned in Arkansas and haven't bothered with it since.

[toby]

I really think Comment sections are killing my enjoyment of On-line papers.

If I wanted a bunch of inane ramblings from a group of uneducated hot heads, I'd talk politics at a family reunion.

At least there, I'd get really good potato salad for my time.

[New Nashvillian]

Regardless of anything Hillary did in the last 8 years, I have experience her as inherently divisive -- something I think is a foundational ill of our culture in the last 8 years, perpetrated mostly by W and his puppeteers.

But when she sold out and got all military (presumably pandering to the center and proving that she had gonads, even though she's female), and then moved center again and again to distance herself from liberal and move closer to the centrist position, I was very much against her candidacy.

Hey -- the press reflects our society and our society prefers Obama.

Now, sheddup Hillary, and make me a sammich!

[New Nashvillian]

Raise you hand if you're sick and tired of these leaders whining about being victims of one thing or anohter, esp. the CLintons. If it's not the media it's the GOP. I can't stomach four more years of their whining and fighting. This is their M.O., people! They create this chaos.

He was a great President, but it's over... it is SO over! And she doesn't have the ethics, the solidity, or the integrity to raise the office from the depths of despair, propagated by the 8 years of crap we've had from all levels of our government: judicial, executive, and legislative.