Hillary To Drag Mr. Bill Out Of Mothballs

by JASmius



I guess I am somewhat surprised that it took Mrs. Clinton this long to finally decide that maybe her Nurse Ratchet-esque countenance should not, after all, be the public face of her own campaign:

After largely staying in the background this summer as Hillary Rodham Clinton kicked off her second campaign for president, former President Bill Clinton is ready to take on a more active and public role in his wife’s second bid for the White House.

Bill Clinton’s move to deepen the political involvement in his wife’s 2016 effort comes as she continues to confront the insurgent campaign of Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders and the chance that Vice President Joe Biden could make a late entry into the race. Friends and former aides say the former president is eager to become a more vocal advocate for her candidacy.

“He’s going to be very active,” said Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a longtime Clinton confidant. “He always intended to come out and support his wife. He’s now at the point that he’s ready to get out there.”

Again, I can only really shrug and say, "What the hell?"  As with rollodexing her way through the Clinton scandal damage control playbook, she may as well give Bill some cuts at the proverbial plate, as it were.  He's the guy that won two national elections despite that avalanche of '90s-era sleaze.  He's the guy with the greatest political skillset ever.  He's the guy that people like and remember fondly, even though his greatest presidential accomplishment was getting and staying out of New Gingrich's and Bob Dole's and Trent Lott's way.  He is everything his wife is not.  It's an intuitively smart move.

Not that there aren't still problems.  Hillary is still the candidate.  Hiding behind her hubby again doesn't do her "historic strong woman president!" narrative any favors.  And she can't keep hiding there forever.  In short, rolling out Sick Willie is a short-term gimmick at best, and one that was supposed to be kept in reserve for the general campaign.  That she's playing this card now speaks volumes about how much trouble Mrs. Clinton's campaign realizes it's in at this still-early stage of the Democrat nominating contest.  And frankly, I don't think that "Blue Plate Special" gimmick is going to work nearly as well in reverse as it did way back in 1992, seeing as how WJC was, after all, an experience multi-term State governor whom the voting public at large didn't know yet.  That's the kind of "bottle magic" you can only capture once.

Plus, I cannot see it having any mitigating effect upon Emailgate, which is all Hillary's scandal.

Lastly, it must be remembered that while Bill Clinton was the grand master at getting himself elected, he has historically been abysmal at successfully putting other Democrats over the top.  I don't think his winning percentage in that regard is even in double-digits.

But as I say, as bad as things are getting for Coronational Processional II, it's not like Her Nib has much more to lose at this point.  As with Chief Brody, shoving anything he could at the great white shark as the Orca was foundering slowly beneath the waves, why not give Mr. Bill a try?  At least he'll leave her a DNA trail to follow up to Chappaqua after it's all over (again).