A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics
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A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics | |
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January 24, 2008ClintonsIt seems to me that Hillary has gone "all in" by sending Bill out as her surrogate hack, and it is not a sure bet. These are unchartered waters. What do people think about the recent days of the Clinton(s)-Obama dustup, both in terms of acceptable political protocol and the ultimate impact on the horserace? Posted by Todd Pearson at January 24, 2008 02:03 PMComments
Getting Bill Clinton more involved is a trade-off: plus from nostalgia for the 1990s (especially in economic terms) vs. minus from fueling the perception that Senator Clinton is running on who she married rather than her own merits. Which will weigh more? It's a roll of the dice. The recent dust-up is probably not doing either side any good. And it's a lot milder than we might see in a General Election. But on balance, I suspect that the answer is the same as above: it's a roll of the dice. All that said, I have the feeling that on balance Clinton came out slightly worse than Obama. Posted by: wj at January 24, 2008 05:33 PMMy perception is that he's been nastier when campaigning on his own behalf. Deliberate good guy /bad guy? I feel like he's not as persuasive doing things that way. I wondered about Bill's emergence a month or more ago. It was never a question of if but rather when. He was the ace in the hole, and everyone knew it. A better analogy might even be chess. When do you bring out the queen? Depends on the game Jimmy, depends on the game. Too early exposes you to risk, too late and the game is already up. So Hillary wheeled out Bill when the going started to get tough. Now my wondering awhile back wasn't so much about when Bill would come out, but how he'd be used. There's that lingering etiquette that a former President must remain above the fray. But IMO this is only of much importance when it comes to what past presidents say about current Presidents. And it's really a function of empathy in that case. So anyway, the choice appears to be that Bill plays the henchman. He takes the hard shots and Hillary remains comparatively clean. This makes a lot of sense to me. And it doesn't bother me a single bit. Politics is still, as of this writing, not beanbag. Etiquette is in the eye of the beholder. Here's the thing: it's up to each and every one of us individually to decide how much credibility we shall lend to what Bill's saying. When he was President, I think a lot of us felt that he really did have the country's interests as a whole at heart. And honestly, ever since I grew up to some semblance of mature adulthood, I've felt that this was pretty true of every President. The enormity of the job injects it into each and every President. We like to quaintly continue to refer to all ex-Presidents as President X. It's a matter of respect and gratitude, I guess, for whoever does this relatively thankless job and has a decade of vitality sucked out of them in the course of a single term. But Bill Clinton isn't the President anymore. He's the husband of a woman running for President, and that's the role in which he is acting right now, the role of a husband. IMO he's entitled to do that. All we have to do is remember that, and we'll all be fine. Grant him exactly the amount of credibility he deserves in THAT role. And that's all the individually varying mileage of each of us, aint it? Posted by: critter at January 24, 2008 08:46 PMAbout 50 area police officers are involved in the search for the man and the weapon, Sgt. T.J. Grady said Sunday. http://www.dealslist.com/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=18036&sid=71438c27cd154b5308b2a8848f71cc49 Please post a comment
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