It's My Party, I'll Cry If I Want To

"What does Bill Clinton want?"

Barack Obama quickly determined what Hillary Clinton wants in the aftermath of defeat: a major role in the general election campaign, a star turn at the convention, help with her debt, and Obama's support for elected officials who backed her. The big-time holdout turns out to be her husband.

Bill is more complex. He wants respect, absolution and love.

The former president and Obama have not talked, and, by all accounts, the man of the Clinton household remains hurt and resentful. Associates provide a variety of explanations for the Bill Clinton dilemma, none of them mutually exclusive.

Some say Bill Clinton not only wants Obama to reach out to him, but to also promise to lift the cloud of alleged racism -- an accusation that continues to eat at the man once dubbed the nation's "first black president." Clinton, these folks suggest, wants Obama to publicly exonerate him of the charge that he played the race card in the primaries.

Beyond that, some associates say, Bill Clinton wants Obama to reach out to him as a mentor, a guide who can lead Obama through the labyrinth of a tough presidential election. "Bill wants to be honored, to return to the role of Democratic elder statesman, and get rid of this image of him as a pol willing to do anything to win," said one associate.

"He is still bruised from the trail, really hurt about the racist charges leveled against him, and convinced the Obama campaign fomented it," said another source familiar with the former president's attitude. "What he would really like is for Obama to apologize, but on one level he knows that is never going to happen," a third source said.

Another source, in contrast, downgraded the idea that Bill Clinton wants to be personally attended to by Obama. Instead, the source said, "POTUS wants first and foremost that his wife is treated with the respect that she has earned. Secondly, while he does not expect Obama to run for a Clinton third term, he would hope that Obama does not continue to implicitly criticize his eight years in office as he did during the primaries."

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Finally, a person close to both Clintons contended that the current impasse between Obama and Bill Clinton "is not a big problem. All Obama has to do is ask, it's his name on the ballot." Once that hurdle is crossed, this friend of the former president and first lady said, "Bill Clinton will end up seducing Obama. Clinton likes to deal with people who have not necessarily treated him well," noting that Clinton and Newt Gingrich had a productive relationship until Gingrich began pressing for impeachment.

The accusation that Bill Clinton pointedly sought to downgrade Obama's success and to aggressively define him as a "black" candidate gained momentum on January 26, 2008 when the former president seemed to dismiss Obama's victory in South Carolina: "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here."

Clinton has not been hesitant to make his feelings about these charges known far and wide.

"I think that they [the Obama campaign] played the race card on me," Clinton told Philadelphia radio station WHYY on April 22. "We now know, from memos from the campaign, that they planned to do it along."

On June 2, Clinton told Huffington Post Off The Bus Reporter Mayhill Fowler:

"They had all these people standing up in this church cheering, calling Hillary a white racist, and he [Obama] didn't do anything about it. The first day he said 'Ah, ah, ah well.' Because that's what they do-- he gets other people to slime her."

During the campaign, Obama, in turn, complained a number of times about Bill Clinton's tactics and comments

"You know the former president, who I think all of us have a lot of regard for, has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling," Obama said on January 21. "He continues to make statements that are not supported by the facts....This has become a habit, and one of the things that we're gonna have to do is to directly confront Bill Clinton when he's making statements that are not factually accurate."

Now that he is the nominee, however, Obama has become more generous towards Bill.

"If the question is, do I want Bill Clinton campaigning for us, for the ticket, leading into November, the answer is absolutely yes. I want him involved. He is a brilliant politician. He was an outstanding president. And so, I want his help, not only in campaigning, but also in governing. And I'm confident that I'll get that help," Obama declared on June 25.

While Obama awaits a response from Mr. Clinton, blogger Marc Ambinder has been conducting an on-line poll asking whether 1) Obama should bend over backwards to make sure Bill Clinton campaigns for him in the fall 2) Obama should ignore Bill Clinton entirely or 3) Obama should ask Bill Clinton politely, but if Clinton says no, Obama should ignore him.

With a total of 2,292 votes cast, answer number 3 - "ask politely, if 'no,' ignore Clinton" - was decisively ahead with 1,765 votes, or 77 percent of Ambinder's responses; answers 1 and 2 drew 10% (240 votes) and 13% (287 votes) respectively.

Comments

[twohearts]

Bill ruined Hillary's campaign, with her agreement. If he would just write a book or do some good deeds, and stay away for, oh, 5 months....­let him back in. Maybe a nice cruise with 4-5 women and a few poker pals. No internet! No phone!

Hillary has more power and should stay in the Senate and move up the ladder like normal people do, even Ted Kennedy.

The focus should be: OBAMA for PRESIDENT & electing Dems & progressives to the Congress & Senate.

[LiberTLover]

I guess Bill has forgotten about those 120 pages redacted from the Barrett report to protect him. A shame he doesn't "walk" his own "talk".
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jan/24/a-gop-ace-in-the-hole/

[NotMcCain]

I'm no fan of the Washington Times, but after seeing the bitterness toward "enemiers', this sounds plausible:

>>"Ironically, the detours led him into a thicket of apparent Clinton crimes and misdemeanors largely revolving around the misuse of the IRS and Justice Department to punish their enemies — abuses that apparently persisted even after Bill Clinton's term of office ended in 2000.

Before Mr. Barrett could release the report, three Democrats, Mr. Kerry, Sen. Dick Durbin and Sen. Byron Dorgan, North Dakota Democrat, managed to redact the potentially damaging pages by attaching a rider to an unrelated appropriations bill. Furious, Mr. Barrett issued a statement saying, "An accurate title for the report would be, 'What We Were Prevented from Investigat­ing.' "

[ggmome]

How could I have missed that article! Thank you for the 411 on it. Never knew that it existed. I have a DVD that exposes some of their activities, but that doesn't touch this! Needed that!

Just wish more people would come forward to tell it like it is about them! Sure does validate the Fascist Factor!

[grumpygranny66]

LiberTLover!!!!!!!! WOW WOW What a story.....­....No wonder the Rethugs wanted her to win the
Nomination, they really had something on her.......­...She never would have made it in the GE....I saved it in my favorites to send to my relatives. I started reading the story and was falling asleep at my computer but, I could not stop reading. Thank you so much for the info.. Every person on this Site should read this ..... Now more that ever I can say with pride that BO is a gentleman, he must have known about this and he never used it against her....

I am a mother and grandmother my daughter is two yrs older than BO, and I am proud of him.. I know his mother must be smiling in her grave with pride. What a man, What a man,What a man.....

[aurora57]

Too bad Bill. I'm 51 years old and was a solid supporter while you were president. Unfortunately, your performance during the campaign was too often less than dignified. I have to admit that I was also influenced by the negative reaction of my kids (ages 13 and 16) to the way the Clinton campaign was run and how the Clintons presented themselves.

The bottom line is that the young Americans that will be running this country in the very near future do not relate to the Clintons (good luck John McCain).

Bill C... get over it, support the new party leader, and work to restore your dignity and regain respect.

[Mort]

"That's how we play the game. If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen."
-Bill Clinton
"Waaaaaahhhhh Waaaaaahhhhh, pout pout"
-Bill Clinton

[AbbieXHoffman]

Leave Bill alone. I don't blame him one darn bit for being ticked off. He was UNJUSTLY portrayed as a racist and Obama encouraged that by saying "i am always open to reconcilliation" when asked about it.

Bill's comments were not racist and I am offended that nothing has been done to dispell that by Obama. I bet if he were to do that, Bill would be behind him 100%.


Obama 08

[qdog112]

Would you be happy is Barack said "Bill Clinton is not racist - AS FAR AS I KNOW".

[luvobama]

Good one. That infuriated me. The RFK was the other really bad one. Yikes.

[BardEric]

Yeah, if the statement was made to heal wounds and "unify", the "as far as I know "comment should have been left unsaid..Bu­t Barack is showing that he is a novice when it comes to thinking about all possible interpretations of anything that come out of his mouth. But he will certainly get much better with experience .Dont read too much into it, as I'm sure thats not exactly what Barack ment to convey.

[GrainOSand]

Bill's comments of South Carolina (“Jesse Jackson won SC”), on the Charlie Rose show (“Roll of the dice”), and at other junctures throughout the primaries, were dismissive and contained a racial undertone that he knew to exist before he opened his mouth. Bill was more a political opportunist as opposed to a racist. He and Vernon Jordan are supposedly good friends so it is doubtful he is a racist but it is not doubtful that he is aware of how to manipulate racist attitudes within the populace to benefit his political agenda. Many are willing to leave him alone to work that out in his own mind.

[qdog112]

"how to manipulate racist attitudes"

I AGREE BC PLAYED ON THE VOTERS or so he thought.

[Beninn]

Don't forget H'illary's dismissive comments about MLK and others who took stands for civil rights, and implying LBJ's role was in signing the civil rights act was the real heroism.

She doesn't get to lay this off on BC's heart surgery, Theirs are shared thinking on the subject, and I couldn't help thinking as I watched BC these past months how he seems so much like the good ole white southern boys who don't see themselves as racist because they genuinely like black folks, "as long as they know their place."

The Sister Soljah episode tells me much more about BC's feelings on blacks than his relationship with Vernon Jordan, although that relationship, too, with Jordan, is unequal-Jordan is in service to BC.

[mypov123]

Exactly! I sincerely don't believe that the Clintons are racists either, but they're seasoned politicians and they know how to use race by using rhetoric with racial undertones in order to attract and maintain support, which really disappointed me because I did have a lot of respect for the Clintons at one time.

[sho97]

Bill Clinton is the reason his wife is not the candidate. If there is anger to be had by the supporters of Hillary look no further than Bill. What he did to the campaign of Hillary, Bill can do to Obama.

I would have voted for Hillary if she had won the nomination, but Bill sunk that. He is no longer the political sure thing. Bill is a liability. I am saddened by that but so it is. Hillary still has a great political future and I think even a well earned place in the cabinet of Obama. But if Bill is allowed to run loose he will sink even that for her and loose the White House for Obama.

I tend to think that B.C is not the man he was before surgery. It happens. I have watched this in family members. A childish petulance prevails and they are helpless to stop it. They survive the surgery but are not exactly the same. I hope all those upset about Hillary not being the candidate will realize the worst that can happen now is McCain. All that the Clintons have worked for in their lives would be trashed. Never forget the supreme court nominees McCain would put in place.

[Yuma]

Bill Clinton= Me, myself and I.

[ggmome]

Personally, I have to question a wife, who lacks the intestinal fortitude to confront the husband who is of questionable character. Sleeping with someone who is of questionable character, puts you in jeopardy of being that way also. How much do you overlook, and what price do you personally pay for overlooking it?

Things that make you go hummmmm!

The first paragraph of your statement, led me to the above analogy...

[Lisette]

Bil's comment really was racist though you may not want to hear it

[AbbieXHoffman]

You are what is taking race relations backward. Encouraging calling people racist at every turn for things that are clearly no, is something many white people LOVE to do so they feel better about themselves. And this is coming from a bi-racial person.

Bill saying that Jesse Jackson won SC and Bill still won the primary was not racist. Even Jesse Jackson said on TV as I saw him that he didn't think Bill's comments were racist one bit.

Get over yourself. Every political pundit on TV talks demographics on every channel about what color, gender, relgion, etc about what categories each candidate is expected to get and if those groups are going to put them over the top for the election. Bill was saying .. no need to worry HRC can still win like I did w/o getting the majority of black votes in SC.

[Jjc2006]

No it was not. So sad how ignorant and close minded so many at Huffpo are. Jesse is a good man. And being compared to him is not a negative. Yes, they have race in common. And that is something statisticians will always look at. Bill gets it. So do most intelligent people. Someday, the next woman making a run will be compared to Hillary. WHY? Because of gender.

Get real and grow up

[Pupster]

Bill tried to marginalize Obama into the black candidate, and it came back to bite him on the butt.

[qdog112]

The pain Bill feels is grossly understated in my opinion. Not only did Barack's nomination defeat Hillary, it also eliminated Chelsea and perhaps her offspring. Bill is acutely aware that if Hillary had won, the Clinton brand would have become the most famous in American political history.

Barack has taken the foundation of the Democratic Party away from the Clintons and now any Clinton descendant will have to start from scratch without the headstart, Bill envisioned and probably promised Hillary and Chelsea at some point.

My point is that Bill's feeling at this time are probably exponentially more complex than we can imagine on the surface. Beneath what we see are some very DEEP feelings of dreams deferred if not ended.

Anything coming from the Clinton camp can't be real unless it shows Bill's severe pain.

[GrainOSand]

I gotta go with that analysis. Where insatiable ambition -- leads despair awaits.

[GrainOSand]

I gotta go with that analysis. Where insatiable ambition leads -- despair awaits.

[Pupster]

And don't forget Bill's incredible sense of guilt for humiliating Hillary during the Monica period. He thought he could makes amends by helping Hillary fulfill her ambition to become President and he thought he could deliver that for her. Instead, he was widely perceived to be an albatross to her, a blow to his pride but he must also feel some guilt at the thought that he contributed to her loss. Now he will never be able to make it up to her.

[ggmome]

Hold up Pupster! IF, and I make that if emphatic, there was any sense of guilt possible in him, would he continue his dispicable behavior patterns since his world wide exposure? Noone can 'deliver' anything to anybody that is not totally in their possession! Now the guilt that he may have thought he contributed to her loss, has to also be examined. Lots of times, you must truly know the persons means to an end. Believe me, there are tons of variables that come into play...Que­stions that would have arisen as to his Library Contributors, how much of his speaking engagements would have had to have been curtailed had she become President, how much would he have had to expose as far as his extra curriculum activities, among other things? But mostly, how much of his ego would he have had to deflate?

I ran across a statement made by a Philadelphia TV Personality, that suggested that perhaps some of Bills actions were done for 'purpose'.­..HIS 'purpose. Upon reading that, I was shocked, but now it makes sense.

[gloriar8]

qdog112- we have been disccusing the Chelsea and her offspring effect for months. You're right on.

[richardgordon]

I think Bill has to come to terms with to things: First of all he is no longer top dog in the Democratic Party. Obama is the new star and there just isn't room for two enormous egos. Certainly, Obama cannot afford to have Bills or Hillary's ego dominating the agenda. The second is that Bill is going to have to come to terms that if he wants respect from Obama he has to give it first. No matter what Bill's criticisms or complaints about Obama he has to acknowledge that Obama is top dog. Obama does not need to come crawling to Bill. It is the other way around. And Obama is one heck of a smart dude. He is tough and smart and he has made very few mistakes.

On the other hand, Bill could have an important place in the Obama Administration. The Bush Administration and the Republicans have left enormous problems to be solved. It is going to take the combined talents of all of the smartest Democratic politicians to clean up the mess the Republicans have left. And Bill and Hillary are two of the cleverest Politicians in the Democratic party. Both of them could be an enormous asset to an Obama Administration. But lets get one thing straight. Neither of them are going to be running the show. Its Obama's game and they (Bill and Hillary) both need to show respect to Obama. A respect, incidentally, that Obama has shown them.

[ggmome]

...A 'respect' neither one of them can give... The disrespect is ingrained in them, and was revealed!

It's their LEARNED behavior pattern! Neither of them respect themselves or each other!

Now that TRUE STORY!

[WFV]

'What does BC want?' the article asks. The answer is more, more, more, more, and more.

Power, recognition, press coverage, money, travel, wining, dining, tra la la. He simply cannot stand it that his wife was defeated by a junior senator from Illinois, and there's nothing he can do about it. He is a typical baby boomer who can't pass the torch gracefully.

Personally, I hope he stays miffed and stays out of the spotlight. I think we've seen and heard enough lately.

[qdog112]

"What does BC want?"

THE WHITE HOUSE OR BUST!

[DCtrain]

Obama should stay business and move a head... Bill needs to show some class and fall into line like a good citizen.

[Lisette]

Bill is pouting because he knows
Barack is now the head of the
Democratic Party
The Clinton's are becoming more and more irrelevant
Time marches on!

[DCtrain]

He's not very dignified in retirement­... all his actions just hurt his image and stature... Bill is the anchor of the Democratic party... time to cut him loose and let him sink.

[mcgreen]

Wear did you get that picture! it's worth a look just to see the silly face, omg, got a good laugh.

BC is a talented politician, I'm sure he will be helpful and enjoy working to support our candidate.

My suspicion is everyone is walking on eggshells to preserve the feelings of overwrought Clinton supporters and not provide fodder for the media... who would love a flare up and isn't above trying to start that fire themselves. .

[JFaye]

I imagine this little pouting game Mr. Clinton is playing is one he perfected through his courtship and eventual marriage to his forgiving and tolerant wife.

Mr. Clinton needs to get over himself and Mr. Obama should display enough confidence to know HE WON THE PARTY'S NOMINATING PROCESS and not allow the Clintons' any further manipulation.

If the media would stop giving Clinton so much air-time (print included) perhaps we could focus more on the McBush... McCain (sorry) blunders.

[richardgordon]

I think you are misreading the situation. Obama has plenty of self confidence. But he is the consummate politician. He needs Hillary's support and her supporters. Why alienate the Clintons by throwing his weight around? Who does that benefit? McCain, of course. Also as a black man he knows white people. White people in America have this sense of entitlement. He is playing their game. Hes flattering them and fawning over them for good reason. He doesn't have the Presidency just yet. Once he's won the election I think you will see a different Obama. A man firmly in charge of his own Administration.

[stokely]

Hey Bill, I feel your pain!

btw, wouldn't you agree pouting is so unbecoming for a former president ...

take care

[Agnim]

Bill Clinton is the 'typical white person'. lol

Why compare Obama with Jackson, if not on the basis of race?
After all, there have been so many candidates who campaigned in South Carolina before?

More to the point, Bill Clinton is your 'typical bigot'.
He introduced the 'race card', then accuses Obama's campaign of doing something it DID NOT DO!

Bill Clinton belongs to the old time politicos who are hell bent on slicing and dicing and polarizing Americans, which Obama was astute enough to avoid!

Here's a guy who along with his wife, Hilary, praised the divisive devil, Karl Rogue, who seek to win at all cost even if they govern like crap?

Bill Clinton is stewing in the polarizing pot broth he cooked. Let him!
They were dismissive of Obama; and he trashed their behinds.
Bill is still in disbelief that 'a Black man whupped his behind'; and in his little world of bigots, that should not be.

[scrawf]

What an absolute pantload of dung. First of all, the Obama campaign played the race card. Secondly, Obama barely beat Clinton. Third, with your imagined quote, you are injecting racism into your post. Hardly surprising for an Obama supporter, though.

[iswideopen]

Obama is about business; His team was advised by him "no drama allowed". How to you think they stayed focused and ran the best presidential campaign we have seen to date; they respect and trust each other and that is what it's all about; "just do it". Now, people, it is our turn to return the favor to Obama and smack down McBush. Let's get busy!! Barack and Roll That Vote!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!

OBAMA '08