Joe Klein Sees Possible 'Sabotage' by Bill Clinton, Bloomberg Pollster Sees Room for Bloomberg Candidacy
Time columnist Joe Klein created a stir at the Council on Foreign Relations earlier today when he suggested that "an element of unwitting sabotage" may be behind Bill Clinton's series of apparently off-message comments while campaigning on behalf of his wife.
Klein speculated: "He's worrying, 'Maybe she's going to be a better president than I was'."
He also suggested that Clinton was ambivalent about his wife’s candidacy because, alongside those fears, "Consciously, I think that he sees her [possible] election as president as the final validation of his presidency."
Klein presaged these remarks with a heavily ironic comment that he would not "ever, ever want to speculate about what's going on inside of Bill Clinton's mind."
(He was, of course, ultimately unmasked as the anonymous author of Primary Colors, a thinly fictionalized account of Mr. Clinton's 1992 run for the presidency. In 2002, he followed this up with The Natural, a non-fiction assessment of the Clinton administration.)
Klein was speaking as the chair of an event entitled "Foreign Policy in Campaign 2008," and was joined by a trio of pollsters: Kellyanne Conway of The Polling Company, Geoff Garin of Peter D. Hart Research Associates, and Doug Schoen of Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates.
Conway and Garin lean Republican and Democratic respectively, while Schoen is positioned to play a leading role if Mayor Michael Bloomberg mounts an independent bid for the presidency.
On the subject of former president Clinton's campaign trail appearances, Garin said, "Bill Clinton should recede into the background of Hillary Clinton's campaign…She ends up having to spend far too much time defending what he says when he is provocative."
Schoen, the Bloomberg pollster, claimed to have divined a hunger for a new kind of candidate.
"There is enough restiveness in the American electorate that should someone like Mayor Bloomberg decide to get in the race…Many of the pundits now who are saying that he will not be a serious contender would find that very quickly he would be competitive with the candidates from the two major parties," he said.
Schoen added: "Mayor Bloomberg obviously has a resume and has considerably more sanity than Ross Perot possessed—as well as a considerably bigger bankbook."
At an earlier point in the discussion, Schoen asserted that America is in "a profoundly unsettled time" and noted that there were more registered independents than either Republicans or Democrats.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Too funny. "Bloomberg Pollster Sees Room for Bloomberg Candidacy."
Nice one.
I don't think it's fair that Senator Obama, predominantly, is running against a 2 term president Bill Clinton. Hillary should fight her own battles, and the spouses of all the other candidates should have as much air, tv and jawyacking platform as Bill Clinton or he should just go to his library and continue writing his memoirs.
How do you become a "registered independent"?????
It will never stop to amaze me how deep up their assess these pundits are. They pontificate and babble about the process and the happenings of an election which can be useful to those following the process. They post opinions on winners and loosers, as if the election is nothing but a vulgar spectator. Now dear Mr. Klein put his Dr. Laura’s hat on, and tries to psychoanalyze Bill Clinton. Sheer lunacy. Joe Klein has no better inside into bill Clinton’s head that you average lab rat! What a pompous ass. Some advise to Joe; stick to commentary on measurable, verified, confirmed actions! Leave the psychoanalysis to Freud!!
Good article but I think you could/should write a book about Bill Clinton's role in Hillary's campaign. Maybe call it "Third Term".
I think his campaign is the best story of the 2008 election. News articles, editorials, Op-Ed pieces and blogs are full of Bill. If you started researching now and started with only web searches you would probably need a year full time to get everything before some of it disappears from the web.
I agree with George Will's comment: "Speaking of the boomers' inexhaustible fascination with themselves, Bill Clinton has transformed his wife's campaign into his narcissism tour. As the New York Times dryly described a New Hampshire appearance the day after her Iowa rejection: "He talked about his administration, his foundation work and some about his wife.""
However, it talks only about tactical campaigning. There is something of more concern.
Running to redeem a father and now, a husband, is a story worth writing.
Much has been written about George W running to redeem his father's "failure" to "go to Bagdad".
Some has been written this time around about Senator Dodd running to redeem his father's failure-ethical lapses- and Governor Romney running to redeem his father's failure-his brainwashing comments.
The press has been nibbling around the edges of Hillary running to redeem Bill and herself. That story, however, is the most intriguing of the bunch.
In addition, an article written about all of these "redemption" runs would probably convince us that voters should never vote for a presidential candidate who is related to a president or presidential candidate. I think with just my information it is fair to say that redemption runs lead to poor judgment in the political decisions of a campaign and in presidential decisions, clouding both. An experienced political writer or writers would be able to fully research and present clearly the results of that research.
I think that Hillary Clinton would still be leading if Bill Clinton had been kept in the background. What I am seeing and what I believe the press is starting to report is that Hillary's race is all about Bill redeeming Bill and Bill's legacy and Hillary redeeming Bill, Bill's legacy, and Hillary's legacy. Obama and Edwards have been clearly stating for a long time that their presidential race is about America or about the middle class or about the other America, not about them. Hillary in NH is just starting to say that her race is not about her. But she just said that the race for her is very personal, suggesting policy but in reality much more telling.
On a related matter: I think Michael Goodwin may have been the first to write about Hillary's experience claim. John F. Harris and Maureen Dowd also touch on this factor. However, they are just describing the peak of the iceberg.
Hillary Clinton is On the Ropes (Michael Goodwin, New York Daily News)
"The nostalgia for the '90s, a move for a restoration of the Clinton presidency, isn't a persuasive rationale. The flaw was on display in her speech - surrounded by Bill and some of his old aides, she was a tableau of the past, not the future."
"She needs to come out from behind Bubba and the barricades and the imperial court of handlers who create a bubble."
Hillary and Bill Clinton's time in the White house was during a much different, much easier time in our country's history than the next eight years will be.
I think the voters realize that Hillary's claim to experience was that she had only some experience and that it was during that much different, much easier period.
It is not all that relevant to the difficult next eight years. Her time has come and gone.
I think that voters are seeing Bill Clinton as someone who rode the wave, not as someone who actively created the good times. The more I read and think about Bill, the more I see him as someone who wasted a fabulous opportunity to help the people of this country.
I think that is underlying Hillary's drop in the polls and the loss in Iowa. If that is correct, I don't see how she can regain the lead without a very negative attack on Obama. I think that having Bill on the campaign trail was the cause of her decline. It made her look like his puppet, reminded people of Bill's failings to seize the fabulous opportunity, and reinforced the opinion that she was of the past that was much different than the present.
If this is correct, Bill's taking over her campaign will only make matters worse for Hillary. Sharp attacks by both of them against Obama will also reinforce the differences between the two candidates.