From Politics 101: Don’t revive a controversy that your wife’s campaign is trying to lay to rest.

Bill Clinton, who is often called one of the savviest politicians of his generation, may have missed that particular lesson. Or perhaps he was just a forgetful 60-something.

Either way, he did Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign no favors Thursday when he brought up her recent misstatements about being under sniper fire in Bosnia.

Not only did he resurrect a subject that his wife no doubt wishes everyone would forget, but he rushed to her defense with a series of inaccuracies. He also suggested that his wife, who is running for president in part on her preparedness to handle emergencies in the middle of the night, might have forgotten details of the incident because she was 60, forgetful and tired.

“When they’re 60,” he said of reporters who, he believes, have overdramatized the episode, “they’ll forget something when they’re tired at 11 o’clock at night, too.”