NYT: Bill Clinton 'bitterly' believes Obama camp's painted him as 'brutish, race-baiting' Mike Sheehan

Published: Monday April 21, 2008



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Print This Email This The possibility of a "dream" Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton Democratic ticket is the subject of a front-page story in Tuesday's edition of The New York Times. "Imagine President Barack Obama is preparing his first State of the Union message. Would he want Vice President Hillary Rodham Clinton tut-tutting with edits or suggesting how she could write it better? Would he want to hear Second Spouse Bill Clinton wax on and on about favorite lines from his own speeches?" writes Patrick Healy for the Times. "Alternatively, would the poll-obsessed Clintons want to wake up in the White House residence in 2009 and read about Vice President Obama's sky-high popularity ratings, and how they make her look like his stern old lady?" In discussing the pros and cons of a joint-ticket scenario, Healy shares a few choice bits of information about the two campaigns. Former president Bill Clinton--who has had a rough time campaiging on behalf of his wife, to the point that she told him to shut up--"bitterly believes that the Obama camp has portrayed him as a brutish and race-baiting campaigner," says Healy, per associates of the former first lady. He adds that Obama aides feel Sen. Clinton's "baggage" would hurt Obama's image, "and they also believe that the Clinton camp's negative tone seems a poor match for Hope." Remote hope remains, though, for advocates of a "dream ticket." Healy says that "some uncommitted superdelegates see such a unity ticket as a way to short-circuit a fight for the nomination all the way to the Democratic convention in August" and to combine the voter bases of the two White House hopefuls. "All that stands in the way are a few pesky details," writes Healy, "like that Obama and Clinton want to be done with each other, starting now." The two camps "have been brutal to each other," the article notes, quoting a senior Obama aide as saying Clinton staffers would bring "their toxicity and negativism into our campaign," while the Clinton camp accuses Obama of going "sharply negative." Excerpts from the Times article, available in full at this link, follow... # To be precise, aides for both candidates would not rule out the idea of a joint ticket -- though it was hard to hear it through all the laughing. Indeed, some Clinton aides said that Clinton, should she catch up and surpass Obama in the fight for delegates, would almost certainly have to offer him the vice presidential slot, given his tremendous popularity (and especially if he is still ahead in the popular vote). Each might also be in a position to argue that he or she has the right of first refusal on the vice presidency -- though Obama aides said that the oddity of having a former president as the spouse of a sitting vice president might be great enough to rule out asking Clinton (or at least provide an excuse to do so), a point on which several political analysts agreed. "It's one thing to keep your running mate on message -- it'd be much more difficult for Obama to keep a former president of the United States on his message, as well, for four or eight years, especially one with the skills and disposition of President Clinton," said Joel K. Goldstein, an expert on the vice presidency and a professor at Saint Louis University School of Law. "And if Hillary is the presidential nominee, Obama might not want to accept a spot that really isn't the second spot -- it's the third spot, behind Bill Clinton," he added. #