Don't do the Big Dog like that

The New York Times ran a story headlined "Bill Clinton Speech in Malaysia Irks Investors"

Now, I don't think I was the only person to read that and think that the investors were irked by something Bill Clinton said in his speech. But that's not really the thrust of the story at all. Clinton just said nice things about the guy who organized the event and paid him his $200k to be there. I don't think "investors" should have been too surprised by that.

What the story actually tries to demonstrate is that the organizer in question, a guy named Vinod Sekhar, is a sketchy character. If it manages to accomplish even this, it does so barely. The most damning accusation by anyone quoted in the piece is that the only reason he hired Clinton to appear is because "[h]e just wants to get new investors." Well golly. That's almost as bad as the charge of living in a rented house, which I'm pretty sure is legal. And yeah he settled some lawsuits (one from Bruce Willis) but the guy doesn't have a criminal rap sheet or anything.

So the story is actually about some disgruntled investors of Sekhar's who don't like him and disapprove of Clinton's shilling for him. And the Times runs with the headline "Bill Clinton Speech in Malaysia Irks Investors"?

I'm sure Bill Clinton will do something embarrassing or controversial soon enough, but there's no need to just make shit up.

Bill Clinton

What a scumbag. He's on Meet the Press, talking about how great McCain is for not asking for special treatment because he was a POW. I'm fine with him saying nice things about John McCain, but how about sticking to things that aren't blatantly false? You couldn't watch the Republican convention for more than five minutes without hearing a graphic retelling of the beatings he took at the hands of the North Vietnamese. I don't blame McCain for this, but the last thing any Democrat needs to be doing is reinforcing the absurd idea that he is honorably declining to exploit his captivity every chance he gets. He used it to explain his fondness for ABBA, for Christ's sake.

Then Bill is asked about Obama, and he starts with his "unlimited potential," like he's a fucking sophomore small forward declaring for the NBA draft. Brokaw picks up on the seemingly less-than-ringing endorsement, and asks why he thinks Obama isn't "great" yet. Then Bill goes into "I'm not allowed to say what I really mean so here's how I'm going to hint at it" mode, and he mentions right off the bat that Obama was a state senator five years ago. But of course, Bill assures us, as soon as he becomes president (a prospect he characterizes as probable but no sure thing), he will surely improve people's lives in such a way as to reveal his greatness.

Next time I see Bill Clinton on teevee talking about Barack Obama, I want him to pause from lavishing superlatives only long enough to savage John McCain as a dishonest and mentally deteriorating asshole. I think painting the "O" campaign logo on his face would also be a nice touch, to prevent the kind of confusion that could arise from interviews like this about which candidate he supports.

Hillary's speech

Excellent. A big improvement over her withdrawal speech.

Of course we can't have the Clinton discussion stop now because Bill hasn't even gone yet, and he's the one who still burns with rage. I can't see any reasons for his not attending Obama's speech (lead story on Drudge, btw), that don't involve a Caligulan personality disorder.

Bill Clinton is very angry

I'm afraid Bill Clinton has gone round the bend. The intensity level of his interview with ABC News is off the meter. When he talks about Jim Clyburn it looks like his eyes are on fire. He even threw in a Freudian slip for good measure: "He was never my... never a Hillary supporter."

It pisses me off that he managed to keep his statesmanlike reserve during pretty much the entire Bush administration, and is now flipping out just because Team Clinton couldn't nail down a third presidential term and he lost a little face in the process. Cry me a fucking river.

Or better yet, whine loudly about it and threaten to withhold your enthusiastic support for your party's duly nominated candidate! That'll show them how devoid of hubris Bill Clinton is, and it'll help convince black people that you've been their staunch political ally at the same time!

This is a long video, but you can skip to pretty much any point at which Bill is speaking and feel really sorry for the woman interviewing him.

Joe Klein gives relationship advice

In a post entitled "Call Him, Barack", Joe Klein writes that it's on Obama to extend the hand of friendship to Bill Clinton:

Obama has been making a lot of the right moves since nailing down the nomination--and it's probably time to swallow his pride and give the Big Dog a call, perhaps under the guise of asking specific policy advice... and then Obama should casually let slip that he doesn't at all consider Clinton a racist, and never has. Maybe a joke, "I'm looking forward to becoming the second black President..."

My first reaction to this was to imagine Joe hunched over his desk with the little Barack and Bubba dolls, working the whole scene out. But then I think back to the totally chickenshit statement Bill put out the other day, presented in its entirety:

"President Clinton is obviously committed to doing whatever he can and is asked to do to ensure Senator Obama is the next President of the United States."

As Hillary supporter Ed Rendell said, it's time for Bill to get over it. The Clintons ran an incredibly dishonest, nasty campaign, not so much on the race front but on the "we'd be better off with McCain" front, so yeah their image, at least among Democrats, has taken a bit of a hit. Them's the breaks.

The vast majority of Marc Ambinder readers choose a middle way: "Obama should ask Bill Clinton politely [to campaign for him], but if Clinton says no, Obama should ignore him." As opposed to groveling or ignoring him totally.

I guess that's probably reasonable, but I think there's something to be said for letting Bill know that it's not his party anymore, and it's for the best that it isn't. He's been completely useless to the Democratic Party for the last eight years. He was an "elder statesman" (read: quiet as a churchmouse) while Bush was running the country into the ground, and then he suddenly became a petty hatchet man when it was his wife's turn to run.

Sure, he's still powerful enough so that it would be best for Obama not to make an outright enemy of him, but this notion of Klein's that he should call and "casually let slip" that he doesn't think Bill's a racist and make with the jokes seems like a more degrading exercise than is really necessary for him. He's probably going to be president with or without the full-throated support of Bill Clinton.