Crazy? Maybe. But bear with me, here. Clinton had to have known that marginalizing Obama wouldn’t work. He knows Obama is a talented politician, that he isn’t a demagogue like Jackson, and that he has already demonstrated that he can attract white voters in large swaths–Obama certainly didn’t win Iowa by dominating the black vote, did he?
So why would Clinton do it? Well, maybe he doesn’t want his wife to be president.
They don’t come much more alpha male than Bill Clinton. The guy’s a walking erection. I can’t imagine anything more emasculating to an alpha-alpha like Bill than to watch his wife arc over him–for her to become more powerful than he. Actually, it’s quite a bit worse than that. Hillary Clinton was on the verge of not only becoming more powerful than Bill, she was ready to become the most powerful person on the planet. Not only that, she was about to do so by assuming the very office Bill once held, but (probably) won’t ever hold again. Bill, on the other hand, would be relegated to first lady. I can’t see how that wouldn’t mess with the psychology of a guy like Clinton.
An interesting theory. It’s not like Bill to screw up so badly, so it seems at least a little plausible.
Zifnab
Drudge called. He wants his headline back.
4tehlulz
I doubt it. Bill would want to be close to the action badly enough to give that up over alphadom. I think he just had a nutty after Obama dissed his legacy.
rawshark
Probably? Did I miss a memo? How could he get it back?
cleek
what 4tehlulz said
TheFountainHead
No, I think his screw-ups prove just how badly he wants it, he’s willing to put it all on the line and he isn’t thinking clearly.
Svensker
Balko be wrong. Bill wants back in the WH so bad, he’d even screw his wife to get there.
Svensker
Oops. What I meant to say was “he’d even sleep with Hillary to get there”…
jcricket
Was funnier the first time :-)
charles
What is it with people who dream up all sorts of psycho-political intrigue about the Clintons? Most of it seems to start with the assumption that Bill and Hillary are precisely the calculating, power-mad, amoral thugs we assume them to be, and then explains some fact or fable about their lives in that worst possible light. Which of course is then used as further proof of the loathesome nature of the Clintons.
ThymeZone
Nope. Bill is Jonesing for a legacy third term behind Hillary. That and only that motivates him.
He wants back in the White House. Bad.
Dennis - SGMM
Bill would screw a rattlesnake if someone would hold its head for him.
Dennis - SGMM
The “thugs” part is a bit excessive, otherwise, from your lips to…
Pb
I don’t buy it at all; I’m sure Mark Penn thought it’d be a brilliant idea to trot him out as yet another campaign surrogate bashing Obama, and because he’s Bill Clinton, the media would just go along with it. LOL.
No, the real story here is how horrible the Clinton campaign has been–they really thought they would have won it by now, and therefore didn’t plan ahead, blew through their cash, and got caught flat-footed.
Also:
Jake
Yawn-making Freudian crapanalysis aside, I don’t understand his use of the past tense. Did HRC drop out of the race?
Cyrus
The glowing praise of Clinton kind of reminds me of similar praise for Karl Rove. He was an unbeatable strategist until he got beaten. Clinton is charismatic, definitely, and better than what we’ve got now, but infallible? Is it really impossible that an off-the-cuff remark on a bad day by a man in uncharted territory (that is, no other former president’s spouse has run for office) turned out to be dumb?
This seems to be where Balko leaves facts behind. If Clinton was as much of a horn-dog as people seem to think, nothing ever would have got done during his term. It’s entirely possible that Bill is having/will have some twinges of inadequacy when/if his wife gets elected, but being so driven by it that he sabotages her in advance? He’d be the most powerful “first spouse” ever, and Hillary wouldn’t have got as far as she did as quickly as she did without him. He’d have to be a caveman to not notice those strong consolation prizes. It’s possible, you never know, but it seems unlikely.
NonyNony
Meh – I prefer Jim Henley’s read on the situation. It’s about as likely AND doesn’t suffer from armchair psychoanalysis of a relationship that has defied armchair psychoanalysis for going on two decades.
Bill’s not a machine – and he’s certainly not infallible. He made a few calculations based on the idea that the national political landscape was similar to how it was during the last national political campaign he ran. He was mistaken – the landscape has changed ginormously since 1996, and not just because people are kinda sick of politicians named “Bush” and “Clinton”.
myiq2xu
Why do Peggy Noonan, George Will and David Brooks favor Obama?
Jake
Hello boys and girls, welcome to my neighborhood. Today we’ll be talking about projection. Can you say “Projection?”
Good.
Z
Should we size you for your tin-foil hat?
myiq2xu
Agreed.
The Big Dog hasn’t exactly been living in some remote outpost the last 12 years.
Why does it have to be part of some calculated strategy? Sometimes a faux pas is just a faux pas.
myiq2xu
Can I borrow yours instead?
jcricket
Each side is jockeying for position and claiming their wins, delegate leads, experience, cash, supporters, etc. matters more than whatever advantages the other person has. I know Obama supporters hate to hear this, but he’s posturing as much as Hillary is right now.
And before you count out HRC, she and Obama are, essentially, tied. If his “big mo” carries him to wins or near wins in March and April, she’s toast. But if she “roars back” (as she has before) and wins OH, PA and TX, we’re essentially back where we are now.
The one thing that drives me most nuts about Obama supporters is their unwillingness (inability?) to come up with any faults the guy supposedly has (reminds me of GW Bush when asked to come up with mistakes he might have made). Not only does he have faults, the Republicans will spin them as ridiculously as they will Hillary’s supposed faults.
And don’t even get me started on the whole “he’ll unite the country” fantasy. Not. Gonna. Happen. He might turn out more votes than Hillary (not unimportant), but Republicans aren’t gonna shift course and get behind the MUP. Never. Expect even more filibustering come 2009.
As I’ve said elsewhere, I will absolutely support Obama if he’s the nominee. 100%. No doubts, no equivocations, no holding my nose. Will Obama supporters do the same? If not, I will blame you if the Democrats are shut out of the WH again. I understand why you’d be disappointed if Obama didn’t win (ditto for me on HRC), but it’s more important to get a Dem in the WH, and to turn out and vote, than to stew about how the MUP was “robbed” or how Dems are too hawkish or whatever. Stakes are too fricking high.
crw
Can we please stop with the amateur hour psychoanalysis? Occam’s razor says do not unnecessarily multiply complexity, so I’m going to go with the simpler “Bill is human and ran his mouth in frustration” explanation. No need to make complicated assumptions about the Clinton’s relationship and inner psychological state.
Oh wait, it’s a Michael D. post. Carry on.
LiberalTarian
Dude. If Bill Clinton is so damn smart, how come he got impeached for a blow job? It isn’t as if he didn’t know they were hunting him.
Just stop it.
borehole
Enough with the “walking erection” stuff. The affair that almost brought him down was with a girl who threw herself at him–if he was the satyr everybody says he is, he would’ve been banging starlets.
He’s on the books as the world’s greatest horndog because he didn’t refuse a blowjob, for crying out loud. By Chris Rock’s classic formulation (a man is as faithful as his options), Bill’s a better husband than the vast majority of us.
Tim (the other one)
“They don’t come much more alpha male than Bill Clinton.”
I need a physical ID on Balko to buy this meme. What do alpha males look like on his planet because Big Dog only hits alpha in a pussified world.
Horny politician sure, but fighter pilot ? Better get that flight suit out.
EnderWiggin
Did Malkin or Drudge hack the site and post this insipid item?
Seriously, anytime I hear someone trying to analyze the Clinton marriage, I assume they were in a relationship that involved cheating, and just need to project their own issues on the most public adulterer of all time. Or they are a “US Weekly” type that randomly decided to talk about politics.
They are married, he cheats, she forgives him. Get over it. Stop playing remote therapist. You don’t know either of them, you have no idea how they feel, why they stay married, if she is just using him, if he would find his wife as President “emasculating”*.
If you want to hate the Clinton’s, find good reasons. There are PLENTY of them out there.
*Am I the only one who thinks that being the guy who is screwing the most powerful person in the world would be serious bragging rights for any guy as obsessed with his cock as the Clenis people like to make him out to be?
The Grand Panjandrum
As was pointed out up thread, all these guys are the greatest (Rove, Clinton, …) until they lose. Obama is not the school boy HRC would have the public believe. He’s tough as nails and schooling them at their own game.
This guy wants to be President. He’s running a campaign against one of the great political machines of the late 20th century. Recall: the ENTIRE Republican apparatus couldn’t beat the Clintons. Why do you think the Republicans hate the Clintons so much? I don’t believe for one second that all the vitriol is based on the Clinton propensity for parsing, dissembling and obfuscation. It is the FACT that the Republicans could never beat them even though they all the “dirt” on them. But guess what? Obama has out campaigned the Clintons. Period. Every time he takes a shot, he counter punches. This weekend Obama punched the Clinton campaign in the teeth. Let’s see how it plays out now.
Obama doesn’t have the nomination yet, but things are looking better. Republicans should watch and learn. If they couldn’t beat Clinton, it will more difficult to bring down Obama. But I guess that’s why we have elections and not coronations!
Z
myiq,
You could borrow my tin foil hat, but it isn’t tuned to anti-Clinton conspiracies between Repubs and Obama. I’m not sure it would really work for you.
Damien
Yeah, because we all get our marital fidelity advice from Chris Rock…
buzzrd
Why are you going to Obama supporters to find his faults? That’s like asking about Alabama highway directions when you’re outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. Go to the source. Read Obama’s books. Listen to Michelle Obama. Listen to Obama himself. You’ll hear plenty of faults. During the one debate where the question about faults were asked of the 3 candidates, Obama was the only one who answered it honestly by naming a true weakness — organizational skills.
Birdzilla
HE IS JUS LIABLE TO GET TURNED INTO A TOADY FROG
stankfish
Seems pretty obvious to me.
Hillary needed to change the topic away from Obama coming out of Iowa. If they hadn’t done something to manage the news cycle and dent Obama’s momentum he’d likely have it wrapped up tight by now. Bill knew exactly what he was doing and backed off precisely when it started hurting the campaign more than it helped.
goatchowder
The Clenis! The Clenis! In terror of the mighty Clenis!
Does this guy read Freud much?