I’m sure glad Bill Clinton is helping their side and not ours. Because with friends like that, who need enemies?
In trying to stump for Hillary, he made a slip. He mentioned the “awful legacy of the last 7 years”. And, added quickly, the 8 years before that as well.
Clinton spokesperson Angela Urena was called upon to clean up the wreckage. He wasn’t talking about Obama’s record. No no no. He was really talking about those pesky Republicans who obstructed everything.
That doesn’t wash. Because even if she’s elected, she’ll still need to face those same pesky Republicans. Since Bill is stumping on the claim that Hillary can succeed where Obama didn’t, than yes, he IS actually criticizing Obama.
And that’s only part of the issue.
In framing it that way, Bill is setting the response for future complaints against Hillary, taken from Obama’s own playbook. It’s a revisit of the Limbaugh Theorem. Behave as though the events directly under your control were things that trouble you deeply, and claim you will work tirelessly to solve them.
Bill isn’t speaking as though Hillary is on the inner circle in the present administration. (If only she were there, surely the problems would have been long since solved by Bill’s miracle worker.) No, sadly this powerful agent of change was not the one calling the shots, and therefore could not have ridden out to the rescue on her Pale Horse.
Bill Clinton has created a distinction between the Obama administration and the one he hopes his wife will secure afterward. It almost borrows biblical language — Obama’s 7 lean years followed by Hillary’s years of plenty.
Another reason? If things don’t go well at first, well, blame it on those awful years. Obama’s years. Obama had 8 years of scapegoating Dubya for everything that went wrong. And the media lapped it up. What will Hillary do when things don’t quite go her way? Of course! Just blame POTUS 44.
