How Helpful Is Bill Clinton?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Billary, Hillary, History
The common wisdom on Bill Clinton is he’s an invaluable asset to any campaign. Reasons given…he’s a beloved President, draws large crowds, draws large money, and it’s therefore assumed he’ll draw large support.
But let’s look at the record…
- 2000: Al Gore virtually shuns Clinton and runs his own campaign against the son of a former President. Result? Chaos ensues. Gore wins the popular vote, but loses the electoral college. And while we all know how it eventually turned out, Gore had a legitimate claim that he won in 2000.
- 2004: John Kerry embraces Clinton’s support and surrogacy after he wins the primaries. Result? He clearly loses both the popular vote and the electoral college against a widely reviled President.
- 2008: Hillary Clinton allows her husband to vigorously campaign for her on the campaign trail, which is historic in and of itself. No two-term President has ever been such a fierce supporter in the primary season. Result? Hillary is most likely facing defeat very soon, and at the very least a mathematically impossible race for delegates against a virtually unknown Senator from Illinois. No general election for her.
So I’ll ask the question again: how helpful is Bill Clinton? Because it seems the more that he’s involved in a campaign, the worse a candidate does.
And of course there are other factors, such as a candidate’s ability to communicate effectively, their policy platforms, their ability to respond to attacks quickly, etc.; but from all indications Bill seems to be a hinderance, not a help.
If Obama wins this nomination, he’d do well to remember this.
UPDATE:
Maybe this is all the support Obama needs from Bill…
And so it goes…
This entry was posted on Saturday, March 1st, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Billary, Hillary, History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 1st, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Meh. Gore, Kerry, and Hillary are all losers because they are lackluster candidates. they’re not personable, they have no charm. They could win if they were running against, you know, Bob Dole.
Bill Clinton has not been much help because he’s not been the one running. People like him. they’ll show up to see him. They’d vote for him if he was running.
How many times has a boy dated an ugly girl because a pretty girl told him to? How many times has a girl dated an ugly boy because a handsome boy told her to?
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