Posted on 12/16/2007 7:15:14 AM PST by COUNTrecount
Bill Clinton has finally succumbed to temptation and intervened personally to salvage his wife's faltering bid for the White House, according to leaks from her secretive campaign team.
The exasperated former President has clashed with some of Hillary Clinton's closest advisors over strategy, after their recent attacks on Barack Obama, her main rival for the Democratic nomination, backfired.
He is said to be increasingly impatient that a series of campaign blunders is undermining her once comfortable lead in the opinion polls.
The consummate campaigner, who had previously been kept away from daily campaign operations, earned the "Comeback Kid" tag when he resurrected his own struggling White House run in 1992. Now he is trying to pull off the same trick for his wife.
He went on the offensive on her behalf this weekend with his strongest attack yet on Mr Obama's qualifications for office, and said that voters would be taking a "risk" if they chose him.
He is understood to be particularly frustrated that her chief strategist and polling guru, Mark Penn, chose to portray the former First Lady as the "inevitable" and "invincible" nominee - a strategy that Mr Clinton believes has failed to sell her merits as a candidate.
Indeed, in the frank new television interview, he said it would now be a "miracle" if she won the key first caucus state of Iowa as he attempts to re-position her in voters' minds as a challenger, rather than running like an incumbent.
Mrs Clinton was forced to deny her White House run was in disarray on Friday when asked about the reports of campaign turmoil.
During the early months of the campaign, her aides had sought to keep her husband at arm's length, aware of his popularity but fearful that he would overshadow her.
"Campaigning is in Bill's blood but while the polls were looking good, he was able to hold himself in check," a Democratic strategist who is in close contact with the Clinton camp told The Sunday Telegraph.
"But that's all changed as the campaign has veered badly off course. He's talking with her constantly and throwing out ideas about how to save this thing. He's still convinced she can win, but it's going to be tough."
The latest opinion polls show Mr Obama extending his lead in the key first caucus state of Iowa and catching Mrs Clinton in New Hampshire, where she has previously enjoyed a comfortable advantage in the next state to vote.
Although Mr Obama continues to trail in national polls, the momentum from the early states often proves crucial in the nomination process - as it did for Mr Clinton in 1992.
In the latest embarrassing setback for Mrs Clinton, she apologised personally to Mr Obama after a senior campaign official argued that his long-standing admission of teenage drug use could be used against him in a head-to-head with the Republicans.
The Clintons are understood to have discussed an overhaul of her top campaign personnel last week but they decided that would give off the feeling of panic.
But the former president is behind the new mantra that Mrs Clinton is an "agent for change" as the campaign switches its emphasis away from previous efforts to portray an aura of invincibility and entitlement.
His latest public intervention also drove home the danger that his greater involvement in his wife's campaign might draw attention to him rather than her.
For in dismissing the presidential ambitions of 46-year-old Mr Obama, a first-term Senator, he once again drew an analogy with his own political career when he considered a run for president in 1988 but abandoned the plans just before he was going to announce.
"I knew in my bones that I shouldn't run, that I was a good enough politician to win, but I didn't think I was ready to be president," he told the television interviewer.
The put-down mirrors repeated but so far unsuccessful attempts by the Clinton campaign to portray Mr Obama is too inexperienced and untested to take on a well-organised Republican campaign.
Mr Clinton remains a major plus for his wife's primary campaign with Democratic voters, despite some verbal slips of his own recently - most notably when he claimed to have been clearly against the Iraq war from the start, despite earlier statements to the contrary.
But it is less clear whether he will be an electoral asset after the party primaries when, if Mrs Clinton is the candidate, the scandals of the Clinton White House years and the former president's sexual dalliances will provide ammunition for Republicans.
Commentators are also questioning how voters will view the prospect of a presidential husband-and-wife team in the White House
Just wondering if Blisters and The Beast are going to invite Mark Penn to Fort Marcy Park for a “high-level campaign strategy” meeting...
Glorious Schadenfreude Moment!
Is it too soon to wonder about the Slickster's place on the World and National Stage if this "inexperienced," drug using Senator from Illinois humiliates the Commodities Scam Queen in the primaries?
ML/NJ
Americans wish Mr. Clinton would stay in his rocking chair in his retirement.
She didn’t hire anyone he could boink.
Hitlery’s whole campaign is a house built of cards, all a sham, one of those “who you gonna beleive me or your lying eyes” things. Once the co-conspirators like Penn start to get shot at from inside the fort, they will be signing like birds.
I thought thats what he has been doing since he left the WH.
Unofficially, that’s what I’ve been told.
This is going to get interesting pretty quick!
Can you imagine what it will be like with Hilly commanding you to do one thing and Billy commanding you to do another?
I imagine that there will be a sudden uptick in the numbers of unfortunate accidents, mysterious disappearances, and tragic suicides by current Clinton campaign staffers in the coming weeks.
Billy Boy, you got it all wrong. The problem is that Smellary makes most males want to projectile vomit every time she opens her pie hole. Her voice is enough to curdle a sheet of glass, her bulging eyeball glare is enough to make one commit sepku and her politics remind us of your useless eight years in office.
*Sigh* Must we suffer through more of these two sociopaths?
Why imagine, lets ask Barbra Streisand.
Why imagine, lets ask Barbra Streisand.
It should be. Please let the Hildabeast go down in flames. Perhaps if she loses, she'll dry up and blow away.
He's in a no win situation , if she wins he's over shadowed by her.....and if she loses they will blame him.
The stress, alcohol and cocaine will finally take its tool, watch for a televised total breakdown. It's obvious to anyone that watches him his health is poor and his liquid diet mirrors ted kennedy.
I'm running for reelection...through the back door.
i wish... iirc that was taken in Thailand.
There was a time when the husband & wife ploy was recognized for what it was: a cheesy way to extend the husband's term. For example, Pa & Ma Ferguson, both Texas governors. Or George & Lurleen Wallace in Alabama.
And, in his corrupt little mind, I'm sure that's the way Bill views Hillary's candidacy, as well.
I wonder if Hillary shares his "vision"...
I knew he did a lot of “end runs” with interns but had no idea that he was a “back door man”.
I’m with Rush on this. Bill is not the magic bullet they think he is. His track record campaigning for other candidates is dismal.
Listen to his speeches, ostensibly for Hillary. Me, me, me I, I, I. It’s all about me. Oh, by the way, Hillary is running for President. Now, back to me.....
Afterwards, Big Brown delivers the Sad Hill to light up a meeting for her in Gilford, NH!
With that picture you now owe me a new keyboard (I’ll never get all that coffee out of there) and a new screen (upgrade to flat panel, please).
Anytime Bill makes statements like ‘it’ll be a miracle if she wins’, he’s setting us up. In three weeks we’ll either hear, ‘look at her miraculous comeback’, or ‘look how well she did when everyone (’everyone’ being Bill) was saying she’d lose it overwhelmingly’.
Same playbook, new bimbo.
BEAUTIFUL work !
Slick Willie will take ‘it’ any way he can get it .... another term in the White House ... or whatever else the meaning of the word ‘it’ is.
BILL CLINTON THINKS THIS COUNTRY SHOULD JUST GIVE THE PRESIDENCY TO HILLARY. BECAUSE THEY ARE SUCH GOOD INSPIRING PEOPLE.....HIM WITH ALL HIS WOMEN.....AND HER BLAMING IT ON THE VAST RIGHT WING CONSPIRACY!! THESE TWO DO NOT DESERVE ANYTHING MORE THAN THEY HAVE ALREADY TAKEN FROM THE UNITED STATES!! THEY ARE BOTH FILTHY RICH FROM THEIR CROOKED WAYS AND EXCUSES........I CAN’T STAND EITHER ONE OF THEM! IF I HAD TO LOOK AT HER FOR 4 YEARS, I DON’T KNOW HOW I COULD STAND IT.
THERE, I FEEL BETTER NOW~~LOL~~
I'm guessing...
Is a Clinton ever wrong?
Magic bullet?? BJ’s more like the Silver Bullet.
PRay for W and Our Amazing Troops
"I Feel Your Pain". ;^)
The argument by democrats that it’s a risk to consider a black candidate for such high office isn’t a new one. In fact, it’s an oft-used argument to keep the party firmly in the hands of the old and old-time, rich, white, liberals. They talk liberally of putting blacks in power, even running one for President, but, when the opportunity presents itself, become their true KKK selves. It happened when Carl McCall was such an attractive choice for the nomination for NY governor. It happened when Maynard Jackson was such an appealing and appropriate choice for DNC Chairman. It happened when Alan Page, the former Minnesota Viking hall of famer and MN Supreme Court Justice, was such an eminently good choice to replace the dead Wellstone for US Senator. In his case, the party rolled out some tired, old, failed vampire named Mondale. Coincidentally, it happened in 1984 when Jesse Jackson offered himself as a candidate for President, and, in his stead, the same vampire, Mondale, stepped in. It is happening now with Obama, and will again with whomever his successor is in running for President. “Someday soon, boy, but not right now,” seems to be their favorite answer.
And it’s odd that the media never asks the democrat party to make good on its promise. Then again, who are the owners and publishers, in terms of race?
I want to savor that phrase. English can sometimes be a very beautiful language.
Just like Bill saying he'll be sitting in on certain Cabinet meetings. Just who will be President then?
It certainly would be a disfunctional Presidency.
She would have to neuter him (probably already happened) in front of the cabinet before they will stop listening to him and listen her.
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