Pres. Clinton said:
"A lot of things that were said were factually inaccurate. I did not ever criticize Senator Obama personally in South Carolina"

But he sure did in New Hampshire and Nevada! Lesson: you always have to read what he says VERY carefully.

Bill's over-the-top antics, starting in NH and into Nevada and SC, were startling to me. The content was not only disturbing and inaccurate but stylistically inappropriate. His performance undermined Hillary's candidacy in a way that should have been obvious to her and her campaign. So it left me lowering my estimation of the political skills of this co-candidacy. Bill in particular was noted in his career as being a master of the political game, and he just looked foolish with his red face and finger waving. It left me with two considerations: Hillary lacks self confidence to have linked her campaign so closely to the Bill Clinton legacy, and secondly, Bill has some real emotional knots, perhaps revelatory of his prior betrayal of Hillary, inclining him to be out of control in his push to see her elected.

Not to be overly cranky, but it would be nice if you and Greg and Josh and TPM in general were maybe just a little bit less obsessed with Bill Clinton. It's ridiculous. He's not running. There's no reason to have (multiple) posts every time he stands down a heckler, or every time someone else in the media expresses dislike for him, or every time he makes some sort of self-aggrandizing comment about how the media should be fairer to him. I don't even know if it helps Hillary more than Obama or vice versa, but I do know that it's boring and irritating and more than a little embarrassing for you all. He was President. He's not now. Get over it.

I now fully expect to see a headline from TPM mischaracterizing the recent statement of non-support from Michelle Obama. That's still news, isn't it? Do you have any video footage where we can pick things apart a little more.

Yes, Bill Clinton hates and savages poor Senator Obama all the time. It's all so frumptiosly callooh and callay!

Yes, Bill Clinton got overzealous and overreacted (to negative effect to Hillary's campaign) like any spouse might (and has - see Elizabeth and Michelle) - he says exactly that - and the Obama bandwagon here rolls over on him once again in a manner that would do Newt Gingrich proud.

Come on.

Interesting. There are so many facets to this!Both Clintons have touted her experience - and thus the presumably tested judgment - that supposedly makes her the best choice. But now they admit they used poor judgment about campaign tactics. (Assuming that it's even true that H. can "control" B., one wonders about the quality of advice he offers.)

How good would her judgment be about other things. Not encouraging, I'd say.

BULL SH*T, BULL SH*T, BULL SH*T. Will you people please get the facts straight!!!!! Every offensive attack and statement was PRE-NEW HAMPSHIRE. NEW HAMPSHIRE, not SC. They were playing to poor and uneducated whites in NEW HAMPSHIRE and they succeeded. The plan was to back track after NEW HAMPSHIRE and call a "truce." It didn't work because obama didn't play their game and the media wouldn't let it alone, so then they tried to demean his victory in SC by comparing him to jesse jackson and mr. bill "understanding" that people will vote their race as opposed to issues.

GD NEW HAMPSHIRE. The clintons aren't stupid and they wouldn't play up the race bs before sc. That would be idiotic. It was NEW HAMPSHIRE!!!!! Get it straight PLEASE.

Michael A.

I'm so glad you've finally found the CAPS BUTTON in order to lend more weight to your reasoned analyses. You do your candidate PROUD!

What bothers me most is that I still can't tell how many of Bill Clinton's remarks were "slips" and how many were shrewdly intentional. Therefore, I can't tell how many of the apologies are out of worry for damage done and how many were planned previously as part of the strategy.

I shake my head when I realize that both the Bushes *and* the Clintons have made me so cynical about media manipulation.

My guess is that if HRC gets scared again, we will see a repeat of all the dirty fighting that turned so many of us off. I guess I do believe what Geffen said in the end.

The irony is that Al Gore has become the de-facto ex-president from the Clinton years!

whatever, Bill. what a whiner. he knows he was personally attacking, and he knows he was wrong. he's too small to be straightforward though. bad Clinton family trait.

This NBC interviewer failed to ask any meaningful follow-up questions. So what did Pres. Clinton mean when he compared Barack Obama to Jesse Jackson? It may have been a "true" statement that Jackson had won South Carolina in 1984 and 1988, but was it a true analogy? Why is just a coincidence that he mentioned only another black candidate and other white candidates that had won there but not gone on to win the general election? How is one to interpret Pres. Clinton's Jackson comment as anything other than an effort to marginalize Barack Obama as only "the black candidate"?

And so, the questions go unanswered because they were never asked. And the media let him get away with "the aw, shucks" routine again.

I was a person willing to give the campaign the benefit of the doubt about the race-baiting (except B. Clinton's) -- it seemed plausible that all these people (Shaheen, Johnson, Cuomo, etc.) individually stepped over the line without implicit or explicit approval from Team Clinton. But isn't it interesting how not a single surrogate since South Carolina has crossed that particular line again? And WJC is obviously not "uncontrollable" -- he's quite in control at the moment.

The whole NH-SC debacle wasn't something that they "didn't think through" -- with nearly a month's perspective, it looks to me like a strategy that failed.

And yes, Bill is again living in Never-Neverland if he believes he can characterize his rhetoric as "defending" his wife and not "attacking" Obama. What part of calling Obama a Reagan-loving Republican-lite was a defense of Hillary? What part of lying about Obama's consistent Iraq position was defending Hillary?

To me, the story of this is that Bill claims everything he said was factually accurate. I suppose that's true in the sense it was factually accurate to say there "is" no relationship with Monica Lewinsky. But substantively, calling Obama's opposition to the war a "fairy tale" was a lie.

I'm bugged about the Press' refusal to properly vet Barack. After all white candidates throughout history have undergone this rite of passage.

The Brother can sure sing but, can he dance? Bush showed he could out-danced Gore and Kerry. Bill
out-danced Bush the elder and Dole. And what a dance. A sight to behold for sure. Even Hillary has shown she can dance too. Each withstood everything the Press could uncover.

Is it a matter of respect? Requiring Barack to undergo the vetting process would mean that he is equal to his peers. Treating him with kid gloves to appease the more thin-skinned seems to show two things. The Press is intimidated by said thin-skinned and the possible presence of deep racial animus on the part of the Press. The Press may not want to face a possible back-lash and it's easier to avoid the confrontation that vetting would bring and still maintain a feeling of superiority.

It's very easy to explain Clinton's Jesse Jackson statement, but Obama supporters are more interested in playing the race card than listening. Up until South Carolina, each candidate had won narrowly. Now Obama wins big in South Carolina. Any candidate (yes, even St. Obama) on the losing end of such an election would try to frame the result to minimize the damage. There are actual facts as to why Obama suddenly won big. Is it because the electorate suddenly responded to his message? Could he be depended on to now go forward and win every primary by 25 points? Or is there somehting about the South Carolina electorate that gave Obama a huge advantage? Did 80 percent of blacks vote for Obama, while 75 percent of whites didn't vote for him, because they responded differently to his policies? Is there anything about the election history in South Carolina that might shed some light on this? For instance, could they be one of the only states in the Union where a black candidate has won previously? And more imprtantly, does every pundit and casual observer talk about Obama's support in the black community? Does Obama himself say things like "If I'm the nominee black turnout will go up 30 percent"?

Bill Clinton wasn't portraying Obama as the "black candidate". He is the black candidate, just as surely as Hillary is the female candidate. Obama has just been very successful at playing on liberal guilt, and has managed to dictate when it's OK to talk about race and when it isn't. Every network covering Super Tuesday attributed Obama's big win in Georgia to his support among black voters. Bill Clinton is the only person in the US who is apparently not allowed to do the same.

Do you think if Hillary won in a state where the elctorate was 60 percent women over 50, no one from the Obama campaign would point that out?

Actually, you need to look at the question posed to Clinton in SC to appreciate the awfulness of his answer.

He was asked why it took two Clintons to beat Obama. He answered that Jesse Jackson won in SC. How is his answer related to the question? How is it defending his wife?

*He wasn't responding to a big electoral loss - the polls hadn't closed yet when he spoke.*

He was cynically trying to marginalize Obama, which was consistent with Hillary's strategy to ignore SC as an A-A dominated primary. They tried to peg Obama as Jesse Jackson, figuring that he wouldn't win a state without the demographics of SC. Hello, Idaho. The strategy backfired. Now, he is half-assed covering his tracks so he can try to get back on the campaign trail without killing her campaign in the process.

What disappointed so many of us who supported BC throughout the 90s is that he used this cynical ploy to try to destroy a bright young star of the Democratic Party - one poised to bring a new generation of voters into the fold & also previously independent or moderate voters.

But of course, his own power is more important than the Dem Party, which is why he could never get any other Dems elected during the 90s & failed to develop any young stars during that time.

I mean, seriously, you're going to defend using Nixon's Southern strategy? What does that have to do with being a Democrat?

Michael A noted: "I disagree that he hasn't been properly vetted. The chicago press has gone through his background with a fine tooth comb, as did the clintons campaign."

The way I see it the six major news networks have to ruminate about the news item for at least 3-6 days so that their viewership is fully informed. A brief blip at 6:00 evening news just won't cut it. After al that what the others had to put up with. Can I have an Ahmen?

Bill is going from aggressive-aggressive to passive-aggressive. By apologizing he is setting himself up as a guy who loves Hillary so much he will fight dragons for her. Hey, he owes her, right?

Colonpowwow (I love that name!):

Actually Al Gore is defacto ex-president because he acts like it. Bill Clinton is acting like a candidate for election. And his campaign tactics are not becoming for someone who once held the office of the POTUS.

Compare him to GHWB. Now I personally believe GHWB is pretty well connected to the oil folks and his involvement in the Carlyle Group is documented, but he at least acts like an ex-President in public and never got involved in the GWB campaign (publically) like Bill C has.

I also note that Bill C knows how to behave because while HRC was the "inevitable" candidate, Bill's behavior was sure different.

In short, Bill C has consciously decided that running for HRC was more important that holding onto the decorum of the office of the POTUS. That bothers me a lot. It means all the privileges of an ex-President are being passed into HRC and that they are trying to have their cake and eat it too. It's what they call a dynasty.

And I say all of this after having voted twice for him.

Michael noted: "Ok, like I said how about the clintons? A brief blip ten years ago doesn't cut it. Where is the reporting on the dump truck load of garbage that will be dumped in October?"

The Clintons recieved a bit more that a "blip ten years ago". You must be 'real' young, early 20s maybe?

Just as long as Barack foibles recieve the same intensity and duration of air time as the Hillary's I have no problems with the Press coverage. I'll be waiting.

They can start with what Church, Sunday school and bible version did Barack attend and study during his formative years (age 4-11). If he attended a Mosque, what was its name and who was the Mullah and where is this religious leader now and what were and are his world views? What cultural and social influence did his father have on him before leaving the home?

Nope I'm not real young and I know they got alot of garbage in the 90's, that's why I referred to a dump truck. Hello. Have you heard anything about the dump truck load of garbage in this election????? Nope.

Uh, concerning obama's vetting, the clintons interviewed his kindergarten teacher. Do you actually think they just jumped to kindergarten in freaking indonesia? They just skipped over harvard and columbia and high school and elementary school and went right to kindergarten? Give me a break.

Bill was on one of the morning shows today and said that he learned a lesson after what happened in SC. I think he is trying to get out of her way. People need to remember that he raised a lot of money after Katrina. Also, us older women kind of like the way he has been there for Hillary. We hated the Monica thing - but seeing how he is now really means a lot to us. Many of us have spent our lives subordinated, left to raise our children alone and are very dissappointed in men in general. Seeing him fight for her endeared me to both of them. I just think that instead of campaigning for her, he would be better off concentrating on fundraising.

Sorry philtr, it was the clintons' campaign. Don't you remember the press release and all the bad press? When the press started getting really bad, they tried to claim it was a joke. Then when that didn't work they just fessed up that it was a stupid move. And you talk about my memory of the 90's?

I think the funniest of Bill's lines is that he would be campaigning for her even if he were not married to her. It's funny because it answers a question that nobody asked. Well, maybe it's a question Bill asks himself. Volunteered answers to unasked questions can be very revealing.

As for his explanation of what his role in the Whie House would be: it's vague (no doubt on purpose, to avoid scaring people). He will do "whatever he's asked to do"? What's that? I don't believe that the former president, who is famed for his meticulous political planning, has not discussed this in more detail with the person he is trying so hard to make the next president.

Michael said: "Sorry philtr, it was the clintons' campaign."

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