Bubba Trouble: The Comeback Id: Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair:

Old friends and longtime aides are wringing their hands over Bill Clinton's post-White House escapades, from the dubious (and secretive) business associations to the media blowups that have bruised his wife's campaign, to the private-jetting around with a skirt-chasing, scandal-tinged posse. Some point to Clinton's medical traumas; others blame sheer selfishness, and the absence of anyone who can say "no." Exploring Clintonworld, the author asks if the former president will be consumed by his own worst self.

Read the whole story: Vanity Fair

Comments

[marijam]

I'm going to make a prediction. Hillary and Bill Clinton are going to turn out to be Obama's trump card. He's going to unleash them on those Appalachian states and they are going to bring those states into the Democratic fold and its going to be a blow out election.

[olivia]

The racists in Appalachia are not going to warm to a black man because HillBill tell them to.

[partyofone]

Ben Smith on Politico has an interesting related piece that includes Bill Clinton's 2,000 + diatribe in response, including an attack on Dee Dee Meyers.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0608/Clinton_attacks_Vanity_Fair.html#comments

Now the that Clintons are shamefully damaged goods, I think alot of "loyalists" will be jumping ship and telling what they know.

[hopefulintexas]

Wasn't that strange? Mr. C must have written that one himself. I hear his autobio-tome is also mind-numbingly rambling.

I was shocked that Dee Dee M's husband published that. She has remained very kind to the Clintons, if not outright loyal for a long time.

[2liveNdie]

Bill is a thing of the past!

[FogBelter]

What this truly points out is that when Obama is the officially the nominee there will be more tears from the GOP than the Clinton Campaign. I'm certain that the GOP was all set to release new damning revelations about Hillary and Bill every week throughout the Fall lead up to the General Election. Hillary, as candidate, would never have been able to get on message in policy matters it would have been an endless season of responding to one allegation after another ... not to mention dealing with the unsubstantiated rumors that GOP 527s would have been lobbing in her direction.

I don't know what the motivation for Vanity Fair was to release this story at this phase of the campaign, but one can guess that it is a hint to Democratic Voters that there would have been Bill Clinton issues to deal with in the Fall campaign that many had hoped was behind us.

[campgranata]

created crippling and completely avoidable distractions for Hillary Clinton’s own long-suffering ambition, I found myself asking again and again, What’s the matter with him?

He has not changed, he still operates under the false belief that he can do or say anything and get away with it because he always has. Or perhaps he doesn't think she is qualified to be the president as he knows how little experience she really has; or perhaps he dislikes her as much as most of America and is being passive aggressive about it. But why would the ego-maniacal Mr. Clinton want to get back into the white house as second fiddle? and why would he want to go through the scrutiny that being 'first lady' would bring causing him to monitor his behavior and have to spend time with Hillary? It's a lose lose for him.

[Chillinout]

How long before Hillary renounces and rejects him?

Something she should have done years ago.

[JamieJay]

Bill Clinton, is the reason why we (family/friends) don't support Hillary Clinton. Bill, would be a very dishonorable "first husband". His ways haven't changed and have gotten even worse, since he has left office. From his unsavory business dealings, to having multiple affairs with all sorts of women shows that he has completely lost it. The only thing that Bill and Hillary have in common is that they are both "POWER HUNGRY".

[whirly]

I was watching Bill's interview on "The Daily Show" last night. I don't know the date, but it was pre-Super Tuesday. Viewing it in light of post Super Tuesday events is really eye-opening. He was so cordial to the other candidates as he fully believed in Hillary's inevitability. However, what I found most ironic was that he went on a long tangent about how there needed to be campaign reform so candidates don't have to spend so much time on the road doing fund raisers and can focus on the job at hand in the Senate (if they are senators) instead of running a perpetual campaign. Seeing how Obama's deft use of the internet for fund raising completely changed the outcome of the race, one realizes that at that point he was essentially acknowledging that her campaign was still locked in the 90's. They were at the plate hoping for a homerun, while Obama had already rounded third.

[NetWeasel]

More like, they were at the plate hoping for a home run, while Obama was 5 yards away from a touchdown.

[MissT]

"Bill Clinton’s relevance—and his presence in public life—is as close to permanent as any politician’s can be. "

I disagree. What happened yesterday with the decision of the RBC is the beginning of the coming irrelevance of Bill Clinton. He is aware of that and that is his greatest fear. The democratic party has grown weary of his adolescent behaviour and is trying mightly to rid themselves of it.

There are some, I am one, who look back nostalgically upon the 90's. But it was not all good. Bill and Hillary were never really looking out for the party. It was, and remains all about them. That is why, even though he was a 2 term president, we lost the congress and the Democratic party lost his soul. It really time to move on and away from the Clintons.

[dawlishgal]

The Clintons have never shaken their victimhood­....even after 8 years in power and well over 100 million bucks derived from that power. And now they have dragged their hapless supporters into that creepy abyss of thinking they have been cheated by life, fate AND the Clinton-cr­ony-labele­d "cultists" and "haters"--the supporters of the man who "jumped the line" (just as Bill jumped it in 1992...how quickly they forget).

I have read hundreds of letters and blogs from Clinton supporters, and I have seen NONE that grants former supporters (like myself) any right (either historical or political) to prefer another candidate. To a person, they claim that we have been seduced by a fast-talkin' Obama, when the truth is that we gradually turned against the Clintons because they lack morality and their policies have harmed lower and middle classes by catering to their corporate pals.

It would be almost funny if it weren't so sad...the way these pathetic people who want to vindicate their sad lives by electing a woman--any woman. Hillary and Bill have played them like squeaky violin, infllamed them to the point where a significant number of them are willing to vote against the party and their own best interests. It wouldn't surprise me one iota if the Clintons didn't goad these sad people into forming a 3rd party: "The Narcissism Party."

My question: what will it take before their supporters finallyl say, "Enough, already!?"

[haleywins]

There is a great deal of conjecture here. Not buying all of it.

[campgranata]

please list the parts of the posting you responded to that
are conjecture and what would it take for consensual validation?

[MariaHopeful]

But I thought the Clintons were vetted! So now they print this. After blasting Obama all season long over manufactured controversies. Who is protecting whom?

[riverhouse]

Bill Clinton remains a teenaged boy.

[dawlishgal]

If that.

[emilyjacobs]

Interesting long article. To me it seems like just the same old Bill.

[DCtrain]

Unfortunately, what is inside a man will eventually surface. Bill probably would have been ok if his wife wasn't running for the nominee...­. That is to say, Bill could do anything, date anyone, but when his wife went for office, all of the new baggage gets looked at, up close.

[dawlishgal]

Exactly! That is what happened to me. I supported them for 15 long years, then took a look at their previous behavior through the prism of their current behavior, and a consistent theme began to emerge: that of the Clinton's narcissism.

[pbfishtaco]

The Foundation of Clinton, or is it the other way around?