Bill Clinton's negative impact on Hillary's campaign has been negligible. The media has time after time attempted to make something of it, but they have been, for the most part unsuccessful. that's because the electorate has a very short and profoundly forgiving memory of the past.
Let us examine President Clinton's legacy, which we can of course call his baggage for Hillary to drag along with her.
1. President Clinton was known during his time in office as "the first black President of the United States." He has always appealed strongly to the lower middle-class, the blue collar worker. Of course, now that Barack Obama is running, there is something with which to contrast that statement. President Clinton supported every equal rights and desegregation effort he was confronted with. He regularly appealed to the black churches. His support with the black community was unrivaled in his eight years in office. He ate with them, talked with them. He "felt their pain." When he retired from office, he set up his headquarters in the middle of Harlem.
Let's face it, Bill Clinton is more like the black community that Obama is! Clinton was chomping cheeseburgers and getting in trouble because of his pot smoking while Obama has been forcing down waffles just dying to get back to his organic egg white omelet. When Clinton appears in public we are always a little surprised that he doesn't have an egg McMuffin stain on his tie. Obama looks like a Ken Doll in a Versace suit. Bill Clinton's appeal to the middle class is inviolate, and we can see that Obama has a deep disrespect for anyone who is not of his liberal educated elite.
2. President Clinton has a temper. The media loves this one, and they have tried to capture President Clinton in a "Howard Dean" moment. The problem is that Americans see Bill Clinton's temper as passion. Now everyone knows that Bill Clinton is self-serving, egocentric and mendacious. But show me the politician who isn't. Instead, President Clinton became known as the Teflon President, because no matter what he did, America smiled and claimed it didn't matter all that much. Think about it. The man perjured himself under oath. The nation excused it as if it were just some personal indiscretion. The man was caught in one financial scandal after another, culminating in the illegal acceptance of finances from foreign nationals. But America excused it all.
Let's face it, Bill Clinton is likable. He played the sax on the Orsenio Hall Show. He smiles with charm,
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US elections 2008: Assessing Bill Clinton's negative impact on Hillary's campaign
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