Thanks to the Neville Brothers for the title of this post...From The Atlantic.com:
In politics, Hillary Clinton speaks for the Clinton family now, and aside from her campaign debt, she has no real difficulty supporting Barack Obama privately and publicly.
But Bill Clinton has a beef. A Democrat who has spoken directly to Clinton about his feelings said that the former president remains “miffed” for two reasons.
One is that he feels that Obama’s candidacy was essentially an anti-Clinton candidacy; that Obama ran against Clinton’s presidential record at times, implying that it was timeworn, divisive, and damaging to the party while adopting policy positions that seemed to flow directly from the Clinton oeuvre. Why should Clinton embrace a guy who spent the past twelve months bashing him and his accomplishments?
Two: Clinton is convinced that the Obama campaign went out of its way to portray the former president as a racist. Clinton wants a private meeting with Obama to sort these things out; he has reconciled himself to the reality of Obama’s nomination and does not want to sit on the sidelines.
Obama portrayed Clinton as a racist? Really? When, exactly, was that?
Bill's divisive dismissal of Obama as a latter-day Jesse Jackson, his prickly quip that the Illinois senator's candidacy was a "fairy tale", his claim to Philadelphia's WHYY that "you really have to go some to play the race card on me" (while veering off to mention his "office in Harlem"), and the generally nasty, negative tone on the Clinton campaign trail was like watching a YouTube nervous breakdown.
Our first (white) "black president" looked like a blotchy, beet-red Rorschach Test.
Memo to Bill: it ain't your party, anymore, brother.
And maybe the New Boss ain't the same as the Old Boss.
2 comments:
As Obama continues his drift to the center (one that's not likely to end until he's just right of center)the difference between Bill Clinton's politics will be nil. Obama will be the Clinton presidency incarnate but given Obama's mere presence in the history of American politics he will overshadow Clinton's legacy (how could it not?). Should Obama become president the new boss may not be the same as the old boss but he will be the same as the old boss before the current boss.
TBLMISBT
My crystal ball is in the shop, but even if your prognostication bears fruit, Obama's "presence in the history of American politics" alone will be a huge step forward.
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