Bill Clinton addressed a gathering of Alternative Newsweeklies the other day. It was an alternative alright. A completely alternate universe in which Clinton decried "divisive politics" with a perfectly straight face.
LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton said Saturday that, if he returns to the White House in 2008 because his wife becomes president, his role would be to "do whatever she wants" because that's what a good citizen would do.Clinton said he didn't know if U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Democrat from New York seeking re-election this year, would run for president in two years as some have speculated, but he predicted a woman could win the most powerful office in the world.
Asked at an Association of Alternative Newsweeklies convention what his role would be if his wife were elected, the former two-term president said, "I'll do whatever she wants, and I have no idea what that is. I honestly don't know whether she's going to run."
Clinton said he believes his wife would make a good president and has been a better senator than he expected she would be, becoming knowledgeable about national security, commerce, political relationships, and other issues.
"The idea of her being polarizing is a lot of baloney," he said, referring to a popular image that also was tagged onto his presidency.
I have mentioned this before, I noticed political discourse slide into nastiness faster and further while Clinton was in office than at any other time since I have been paying attention to politics. While it's real popular on the left to blame that on conservatives, it was Hillary that started the "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy" meme shortly after Clinton took office. Things went downhill from there.
The other howler in his speech, incidentally is this line:
"You have to make a world with more partners and fewer terrorists," he said. "And we know how to do that."
Considering Clinton's appalling record on combating terrorism, I frankly would have been rolling on the floor laughing had I been present at that little soirée.
