If anyone doubted something I've written repeatedly on this page--that Bill and Hillary Clinton prefer to see a McCain victory on November 4th, so that Hillary can run unencumbered in 2012--just get a load of Bill today with the ladies of "The View," and in other interviews, as he prepared to open his Clinton Global Initiative in New York.
He could not have been sweeter in his tributes to John McCain and, especially, to Sarah Palin. Although using the word "hot" in relation to her was probably not the most politic word choice. "I come from Arkansas, I get why she's hot out there," Clinton said. "Why she's doing well."
Speaking to reporters before his Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York, the former president described Palin's appeal by adding, "People look at her, and they say, 'All those kids. Something that happens in everybody's family. I'm glad she loves her daughter and she's not ashamed of her. Glad that girl's going around with her boyfriend. Glad they're going to get married.'" Clinton added that voters would think, "I like that little Down syndrome kid. One of them lives down the street. They're wonderful children. They're wonderful people. And I like the idea that this guy [Todd Palin] does those long-distance races. Stayed in the race for 500 miles with a broken arm. My kind of guy."
Regarding John McCain, Bill paid tribute to the naval aviator's years as a prisoner of war and said that McCain is the only Republican who can win. He quickly added that Obama would win and that he [Clinton] will be supporting and campaigning for Obama/Biden.
Anyone inclined to believe that Bill will check the box next to the Obama/Biden names on November 4th only has to listen to his claim that Hillary did not want to be Obama's Vice President because she could do more important work in the Senate--where of course, anyone who follows politics knows that every senate vote will come back to haunt her the next time she runs for president, as that vote for the Iraq war haunted her during the '08 primaries. If Bill had said that she plans to oust the accidental Gov. David Paterson and become governor of New York in order to polish her credentials for her next try for the White House, now that would have been believable.
Instead he claimed that she did not want the second spot but would have taken it because she always puts her country before her self interest. "She would have been the best politically, at least in the short run, because of her enormous support of the country," Clinton said. "She said 'If he asks, I'll do it because it's my duty.'"