Do you remember the 1990s? If you lived through that decade, then you probably heard a bunch of pundits and reporters tell the world that Bill Clinton is the most gifted natural politician of his generation. Not that many people realize that this storyline is actually the result of talking points disseminated by the Clinton White House when Bill was busy fending off impeachment. Remember, this natural politician was only the second president ever impeached. Even though it was Clinton's clear perjury that led to the impeachment, the White House story was that it was radical Republicans who were just out to get the president, but he was such a good politician that he outsmarted them. For years after Bill Clinton left office, we heard over and over that he was just such a wonderful politician.
The truth is that Bill Clinton is really not that good. Oh, he's much better than Hillary Clinton at politics (but that's not saying much.) If one looks at how Bill has handled problems during the last decade, the truth is clear. Think back to one of the seminal moments in Hillary's 2008 fight for the nomination. Barack Obama easily won the South Carolina primary over Hillary. Bill's comment on the Obama victory was to the effect that in 1992, Jesse Jackson won that primary as well. In other words, Bill Clinton attributed the Obama victory to the race of the candidate. His message was clear: Obama might win in heavily black South Carolina, but it really did not mean much. That statement by Bill Clinton allowed the Obama campaign to portray the Clintons as denigrating African Americans and as making racist comments. The statement and its aftermath changed Obama's advantage against Hillary in the black community to an overwhelming lead by Obama with that group. Over the next twenty contests, it was that lead that allowed Obama to win the nomination. Certainly, Bill's comments were not good politics.
I was reminded of Bill's shortcomings as a politician when I saw his interview about the Clinton Foundation and the latest Clinton scandal. Bill's remarks were filled with howlers. My favorite is that Bill said he would continue to give speeches for half a million dollars each because "he had to pay the family's bills." Here's a man who gets paid more for a one hour speech than most Americans make in ten years, but he claims he has trouble paying his bills. Really? Clinton has a personal fortune estimated at close to $200 million dollars. Even if he has it invested so that it returns just 1% annually, it is enough to give Bill and Hillary an income of two million dollars per year, but he has trouble paying the bills. Really? And how about all those tens of millions of dollars worth of services that bill gets from the country as a former president? He doesn't have to pay for those.
Another of Bill's amazingly tone-deaf statements was that there has not been a shred of evidence produced that Hillary had done anything wrong. We just finished nearly a month of seeing each day bring more and more disclosures of huge foreign contributions which were hidden from disclosure by the Clintons despite an agreement that these would all be made public and then learning that these donations came from people who had business with the State Department headed by Hillary. The reality is that not only is there ample evidence of unethical behavior and poor judgment by the Clintons, there seems to be enough there to indict Hillary for criminal conduct.
In many ways, it's funny that Hillary has unleashed Bill to speak on her behalf. Hillary has been in hiding since before she announced her campaign. The biggest political story of the entire campaign so far has been the games played by the Clintons with the Clinton Foundation, but Hillary has not answered so much as a single question regarding the subject. It would be one thing to put Bill out front if he were able to handle the subject, but he has now made clear that he cannot. Neither of the Clintons seem to be much of a politician anymore.
The truth is that Bill Clinton is really not that good. Oh, he's much better than Hillary Clinton at politics (but that's not saying much.) If one looks at how Bill has handled problems during the last decade, the truth is clear. Think back to one of the seminal moments in Hillary's 2008 fight for the nomination. Barack Obama easily won the South Carolina primary over Hillary. Bill's comment on the Obama victory was to the effect that in 1992, Jesse Jackson won that primary as well. In other words, Bill Clinton attributed the Obama victory to the race of the candidate. His message was clear: Obama might win in heavily black South Carolina, but it really did not mean much. That statement by Bill Clinton allowed the Obama campaign to portray the Clintons as denigrating African Americans and as making racist comments. The statement and its aftermath changed Obama's advantage against Hillary in the black community to an overwhelming lead by Obama with that group. Over the next twenty contests, it was that lead that allowed Obama to win the nomination. Certainly, Bill's comments were not good politics.
I was reminded of Bill's shortcomings as a politician when I saw his interview about the Clinton Foundation and the latest Clinton scandal. Bill's remarks were filled with howlers. My favorite is that Bill said he would continue to give speeches for half a million dollars each because "he had to pay the family's bills." Here's a man who gets paid more for a one hour speech than most Americans make in ten years, but he claims he has trouble paying his bills. Really? Clinton has a personal fortune estimated at close to $200 million dollars. Even if he has it invested so that it returns just 1% annually, it is enough to give Bill and Hillary an income of two million dollars per year, but he has trouble paying the bills. Really? And how about all those tens of millions of dollars worth of services that bill gets from the country as a former president? He doesn't have to pay for those.
Another of Bill's amazingly tone-deaf statements was that there has not been a shred of evidence produced that Hillary had done anything wrong. We just finished nearly a month of seeing each day bring more and more disclosures of huge foreign contributions which were hidden from disclosure by the Clintons despite an agreement that these would all be made public and then learning that these donations came from people who had business with the State Department headed by Hillary. The reality is that not only is there ample evidence of unethical behavior and poor judgment by the Clintons, there seems to be enough there to indict Hillary for criminal conduct.
In many ways, it's funny that Hillary has unleashed Bill to speak on her behalf. Hillary has been in hiding since before she announced her campaign. The biggest political story of the entire campaign so far has been the games played by the Clintons with the Clinton Foundation, but Hillary has not answered so much as a single question regarding the subject. It would be one thing to put Bill out front if he were able to handle the subject, but he has now made clear that he cannot. Neither of the Clintons seem to be much of a politician anymore.
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