In the wake of Bill Clinton’s finger-jabbing interview with Chris Wallace, Myrna Blyth explains why Bill is going to be Hill’s biggest problem in her own race for the White House:
“Yes, Clinton is clearly obsessed with protecting his legacy, and reminding him that it remains in the toilet is sure to set him off. Neither his rock-star popularity with certain groups nor his six-figure speech fees, gratifying as they may be, can help him with that. And it makes him, as Wallace found out, crazy.
“But according to David Remnick’s recent article in The New Yorker, he has plans to solve that problem. He is ‘already, in effect, Advance Man in Chief’ for Hillary’s 2008 campaign and the reason for that may be more about him than her. Remnick writes, ‘Bill Clinton is an ex-President in the business of creating a successor who happens to be his wife. The way he sees it, George W. Bush, and the United States Supreme Court denied him the legacy he deserved. Perhaps the wife who supported his every triumph and lifted him up after every fall, the wife he humiliated and nearly lost in 1998, will be the one to provide it.’ Yes, we seem to be talking two-for-the-price-of-one yet again.
“Remnick also shares with us how Bill buoys up Hillary when they are in the public eye together and she is just not as appealing as he is to the crowd that should love them both. When Remnick asked Clinton if he thought he might possibly be a negative factor in a Hillary race, he said he doubts he could be. Then he explains how he comforted her after her underwhelming performance, compared to his, at the Coretta Scott King funeral: ‘You don’t have to be better at this than me. You got to be better than whoever.’ Not exactly the words of comfort any wife would want to here.
“Yes, the Bill Factor is the biggest problem for Hillary, bigger than the way she flip-flops on the war. At some point, she will have to tell the voters what she would to do with him if she ends up in the White House. She can’t have him close at hand in the East Wing with not much to do than share pizza with interns while reporters watch his every move. (By the way, independent women voters, the constituents she must win, would be turned off by that, too.)”