It’s All About Bill
Peter Baker, writing in the Washington Post, notes that this year's Presidential contest is being partly defined by the perception of Bill Clinton's legacy. How voters see him may well determine the outcome.
NORMAN, Okla. — It fell to Mike Turpen, a former Oklahoma attorney general, to warm up the crowd, and he did so with gusto. "Bill Clinton!" he shouted to several thousand people gathered in the McCasland Field House at the University of Oklahoma. "He gave us eight years of peace and prosperity! Do you remember?"
In case they didn't, the former president bounded onstage, took the microphone and spent some of the next hour reminding them: He balanced the budget and paid down the national debt. He made student loans more affordable. He worked with the rest of the world on global warming and arms control. But, he said, "I want you to understand this is not me. This is her."
Maybe, but it seems more than a little bit about him, too. As Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama clash on multiple political fronts heading into Super Tuesday, William Jefferson Clinton's record as president has emerged as a key battleground. How Democrats define his legacy could determine which presidential candidate they choose: Hillary Clinton, to extend it, or Obama, to make a clean break from it.
Bill Clinton's attacks on Obama on the campaign trail — and the generally negative reaction they provoked — have helped focus attention on the former president and seem to have created misgivings about his possible return to Washington. According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, 55 percent of Americans view the former commander in chief favorably, unchanged from a year ago. But just 50 percent said they would be comfortable with him back in the White House, down from 60 percent in September.
There is quite a lot more, including some rather revisionist claims of what Clinton accomplished in office. (Charles Krauthammer pointed out on Friday that Bill Clinton essentially left no legacy behind.) If Hillary gets the nomination, you can bet that Bubba's years in office will become a campaign topic. It's interesting to see the declining numbers of people who would be comfortable with him back at the White House, though.
There is a word of caution at the end of the article that Republicans might want to take to heart.
Former congressman Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.), one of the House managers who prosecuted Clinton in the Senate trial, said he still believes the impeachment was a noble attempt to enforce the rule of law. But he said it should not be relitigated this year. "There were some who were so personally engaged in it that they had a hard time cutting loose of it," he said. "They may try to resurrect it this year. But that would be a mistake. History has passed them by. You'll be on the losing side of history if you let this dominate your life."
I have pointed out before that I thought the impeachment was not a good idea. If you read through the article you'll note that the younger people remember very little of that whole series of events. It really would be a mistake to hammer at that very much, if at all.
By Maggie, Sunday, 3 February , 2008 @ 4:11 pm
I used to listen to Sean Hannity’s radio show (but he got so darned repetitive I couldn’t stand it anymore) … Anyhow, I do recall he had this parody song about Bill Clinton (and he used to sing along to) called:
“It’s All About Me, It’s All About I …”