Ah, Bill. We missed ya. At least that's what I hear from all corners. One of the primary assertions of many Hillary supporters is that if elected, it means Bill will be "back" in the White House.
I think the Clinton nostaliga runs deep because things have gotten so bad in this country over the past seven years that people yearn for that simpler time when Clinton was President. That's fair, I guess.
But then something happens wherein I'm reminded why, as much as I admire Bill's ability to inspire on the campaign trail, I wasn't his biggest fan when he was in office.
Today's story in the Washington Post served as that reminder:
Former president Bill Clinton said on Tuesday that he "opposed Iraq from the beginning," apparently glossing over the more nuanced views of the war he has expressed over time..."Even though I approved of Afghanistan and opposed Iraq from the beginning, I still resent that I was not asked or given the opportunity to support those soldiers," Clinton said. He said he "should not have gotten" the tax cuts he received as a wealthy earner.
My immediate thought was, "That's great, Bill. You opposed Iraq from the beginning. Of course, that doesn't matter much, given that you aren't running for anything this year..."
But of course, that's not the point, is it? The point is to draw in Democratic primary voters to vote for Hillary, and Bill saying HE was opposed to the Iraq War from the beginning...well, he'll be able to influence Hillary once they get back to 1600 Penn Ave in 2009, right?
But of course, as it always is with the Clintons, nothing is as it seems:
But past remarks made by the former president do leave open a question about how fervently Clinton opposed the war in real time and before it grew widely unpopular. In immediate hindsight, Clinton did not sound like a fierce critic. "I supported the president when he asked for authority to stand up against weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," Clinton said on May 18, 2003, during a commencement speech at Tougaloo College in Mississippi.
Oh joy. Talk about your wonderful right-wing frame, teed up beyond belief. Bill was for the war before he was against it. Sounds awfully familiar.
Anyway...is it any wonder that recent polling is showing that "change of direction" is the primary focus of a lot of caucus goers.
Methinks that "change" goes deeper that simply "Dump Bush." I think it speaks to our politics as a whole.
UPDATE:Hat tip to NeuvoLiberal who found this other Bill quote when he was on the Letterman Show, approximately one month before the AUMF vote. When asked by Letterman whether we should go into Iraq, Bill said:
"He is a threat. He's a murderer and a thug. There's no doubt we can do this. We're stronger; he's weaker. You're looking at a couple weeks of bombing and then I'd be astonished if this campaign took more than a week. Astonished."
Astonished, indeed.
UPDATE II: You can't tell me that the Clinton campaign didn't think this was going to be a problem. Mere hours after President Clinton made his statement, the HillaryHub website, paid for by the Clinton campaign, had this article up entitled "Fact Check: Bill Clinton on the Iraq War."
Should his position matter vis a vis Hillary's campaign? No, it shouldn't. But Hillary's campaign certainly think it must. It's the clearest indication to me that Hillary's campaign wants the average voter to associate her with Bill and keep the record clean. And they were worried enough about it to put out the talking points before this became a story. Interesting, indeed.