Bill Clinton Still Won’t Back Obama
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Billary, DemocratsSure, his office put out a tepid endorsement about a month ago, but this latest non-answer of whether Obama is ready to be President is classic Clinton doublespeak.
WASHINGTON – Bill Clinton regrets some things he said – and didn’t say – on the campaign trail. But there’s one thing he still can’t utter: Barack Obama is ready to be President.“You can argue that nobody is ready to be President,” the former President told ABC News.
“You can argue that even if you’ve been vice president for eight years, that no one can be fully ready for the pressures of the office,” Clinton said Monday during a visit to Rwanda.
You can also argue that a former President who misspoke repeatedly during the primaries wasn’t ready to get back on the campaign trail and scuttled his wife’s chances in what should have been a cakewalk.
I think it’s pretty obvious that Clinton does himself no favors by acting like this, but it’s his legacy and I guess he can ruin it if he wants to.
Moving on…
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August 5th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
See, now THAT is funny. Clinton has become such a cartoon when it comes to the truth that when he tells the literal truth, it’s called doublespeak.
IMO it’s literally true that no one is ready to be President. But no partisan is EVER supposed to say that. Why? Because while they know its true, they understand that the real battle involves convincing folks that their guy is readier than the other guy.
So Clinton chose to speak the truth here, and we have to figure out what it means. It’s not doublespeak, but it’s a signal. Clinton could have talked about how his team’s guy was readier, and a better choice than the other team’s guy. But he didn’t. And he’s too savvy a politician not to understand what he’s doing when he says something that, while defensible as true, is also a voluntary abdication of the opportunity to say something positive about his team’s guy.
Ultimately, it could mean one of two things, either that Team Clinton is still looking to nudge Obama for more concessions in return for support. Or it could mean that Bill Clinton is becoming ever more self-absorbed.
Scoundrel that he is, I think it would be very entertaining if Bill Clinton spent his remaining years not as partisan rhetorician, but as someone who just went his own way and said exactly what he thought.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Apparently, Obama has reached the point of being able to “ruin” the legacy of a 2 term president. Wow, impressive. I had no idea that legacies were so trashable in the Democratic Party, or that Obama had such power!! He must be the One.
August 5th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Heaven forbid that a politician have an opinion that strays from the party line. If Bill doesn’t like Obama, fine. If Bill doesn’t think Obama’s qualified and/or “ready,” he shouldn’t have to lie and say otherwise. It causes all kinds of distractions when Bill Clinton lies about things….
August 6th, 2008 at 7:13 am
…kind of wish the reporter asked Clinton if he thought McCain was ready to be President….