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Sunday 7 September 2008

What to do with Bill?

The Bill Clinton story is getting bigger and bigger. As the Politico reports today, the networks now all have producers covering him full time according him a status normally given only to candidates. Even, though, Bill has reportedly been told to tone it down since South Carolina he is still swinging away—Teddy Kennedy now regularly comes in for criticism following his endorsement of Barack Obama.

There’s little doubt that Bill provides the Clinton campaign with something phenomenally useful; a surrogate who can have as much media impact as the candidate. But there’s a real question about whether he is hurting or helping Hillary with it at times becoming unclear who is running for office. There was incredulity among the press corps when Bill was the first Clinton to appear publicly after Hillary’s humiliating defeat in South Carolina.

Now, Joe Klein—one of the journalists who best understands and is most sympathetic to the Clintons—is out with a piece saying that Hillary needs to order Bill off the trail for the good of her own campaign. He argues that Bill’s presence and his tendency to go off the reservation is raising real doubts about whether Hillary could keep him in his place in the White House. As Klein notes, it is hard to imagine Bill not freelancing if he thought there was the possibility of achieving something—such as Middle East peace—that he left unfinished. 

What is exacerbating the Bill issue is what a perfect political spouse Michelle Obama is. She makes a clear and confident case for her husband and is the epitome of the modern, successful, stylish professional woman.

I’m off to see Bill at a rally a couple of hours outside St Louis now and I’ll report back on whether he really has been put back on the leash after South Carolina.

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