by Allen Teal

Created on: May 07, 2008

Al Gore made a major tactical error in the 2000 presidential campaign. He failed to march out a president with high second term approval rating onto the campaign trail. Running against a weak Republican candidate like George W. Bush, Bill Clinton would have made short work of his room temperature IQ. Hanging chad in Florida and voting irregularities elsewhere in the nation would not have been an issue.

Like it or not, Bill Clinton is a political genius. The vast majority of Democrats still see Bill Clinton as a remarkable president with a need for personal moral improvement. He presided over the longest peacetime economic expansion in United States history. Let's not forget that the attacks on 9/11 occurred after his presidency ended. He was respected as a strong military leader on the world stage.

Obviously, anyone who goes out and campaigns for another candidate may make an error or two along the way. You cannot spend your life in front of microphones and cameras and not get caught in an occasionally slip of the tongue. Any negative fall out from these types of remarks are easily covered by the fact that he is not the candidate being voted upon.

If Hillary or any of her advisers really regarded Mr. Clinton as a liability, he would not be out stumping for his wife. He would be doing what many political spouses have done historically. They would keep him off camera and in low interest situations Instead, Bill Clinton has been cover a lot of acreage for his wife's presidential bid.

He has become the one that her campaign has used to attempt firing harpoons into Barak Obama's armor. Many of the pointed negative criticisms of Obama's policies and plans have first been said by Bill Clinton. If they were favorably received, these attacks would then be moved into a more mainstream part of Mrs. Clinton's campaign dialog.

These comments were not off-the-cuff statements. They may have been portrayed as such, but Mr. and Mrs. Clinton are far too savvy to let that happen. Attacks and suggestions by Bill Clinton have been part of the orchestrated attack on a powerful political opponent.

Barak Obama has attempted on several occasions to paint Hillary Clinton's run for the White House as an effort to gain a third and possibly fourth term for her husband. However, these attacks have not resonated very well with voters because many of them would like that very thing to happen. As the campaign has progressed this type of rhetoric has seemed to fade considerably.

It is unlikely that Bill Clinton has ever had a real negative impact on Hillary's campaign. Quite to the contrary, he has been her biggest supporter and asset to date. She is a senator because her last name is Clinton. Her run for the presidency gets its best lift from her marriage to her husband. She is qualified to be the leader, but it is the Clinton name that got her the recognition needed to make a significant charge for the Democratic nomination.

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