I see on the news all the time people lambasting Bill Clinton for making comments they perceive as racist or some other nonsense and I keep thinking they are missing the point. To take some ambiguous impromptu rhetoric and to make such a big deal about it only shows how lifeless the coverage of this selection has become in some parts of the world. The problem is not that he is talking too much. It is that he is not talking enough!
I am well aware this is a controversial opinion. Nonetheless I am shocked I have not yet heard it articulated on television or anywhere else for that matter. Hillary needs to tout Bill more, maybe even go all the way and declare him her vice president! If you use consistent logic then I think that it makes perfect sense.
There are no term limits for vice president and even if there were he has never held the office. Her back is up against the wall and if she loses this election I doubt she will ever get the chance again. She has to approach things from an outside the box point of view.
If she touted him without hinting he would get the vice presidency then there would be two ways that could backfire. One, people might worry he would not have enough influence over her. Two, people would be turned off by the notion of voting for a "puppet" president to begin with.
But as vice president they would be a team. Of course we would joke about him having more control, or them having marital power struggles, but isn't that better for her than not winning at all? Shoot, a lot of Americans already believe that Cheney runs things in Washington. I am sure some republicans do as well and yet voted Bush anyway.
Why? They liked Cheney.
Choosing Cheney was probably the wisest thing Bush could have done for his own political future. While I disparage George's mental abilities I do not see any of that lack in Cheney. He is obviously intelligent and his presence undoubtedly reassured many republican voters. It was a masterstroke.
So could it be if Hillary would embrace this possibility with her husband. I do not guarantee it would work, but I guarantee it would have a better chance of working than her current course of action, which will surely see her defeated and reduced back to Senator for life.
She did not quite arrive on this large stage based on her own merits. She is married to the man who had our economy running like clockwork for eight years, whose management of that vital aspect of the job seems legendary in the wake of what Bush has done with the same machinery since. I feel like this is above all her greatest strength. When she speaks about experience she is not really talking about the Senate but reminding us that she knows about Bill's time in office better than anyone. Well, the political side of it.
But the message is too subtle and hidden. Leaking him as a vice presidential candidate would energize the fanbase in a whole new way in these final stages. It is her only chance for the sweep she needs and the energy that is required to beat a strong candidate like Obama.
I am not even sure it would be effective. I kept asking myself if in my few years of watching I had ever seen a democrat I felt like could challenge him and every time there was only one name that came to mind:
Bill Clinton.
Of course you lose a good deal of the vote because of his infidelity. But he can always tout what he did with the economy and in these recession filled times that reassurance combined with questions about Obama's unproven skill in that area might be enough to swing the vote.
I want to state that it is not because she is a woman that I prefer Bill so much more. He was very articulate, witty and at this point has all the experience in the world compared to Obama. This would be as close as we will ever get to a president being elected more than two terms. It would be a titanic political battle, more so than even this one. People might get hopeful about the economy again and that should be their platform should they choose to do this.
I am not sure at all that this more would be enough to get my vote but I think it would empower her campaign and appeal in a more direct way to the reason a lot of people considered her to begin with. I realize this is a longshot. Hilary will want to maintain an independent identity and in some ways is already trying to distance herself from her husband, buying into this BS that he hurts her more than helps her. If she can ever allow the stark, ever-waiting epiphany that his presidency is the only reason she has made it this far to begin with through then she will be all the stronger for it and possibly even equipped to win this election.