Former president Bill Clinton stopped short of apologizing for an argument with Black Lives Matter protesters at a rally for his wife Hillary Clinton, but called for unity among like-minded people at an April 8 rally in Pennsylvania. (Reuters)

Former president Bill Clinton stopped short of apologizing for an argument with Black Lives Matter protesters at a rally for his wife Hillary Clinton, but called for unity among like-minded people at an April 8 rally in Pennsylvania. (Reuters)

For days now, Bill Clinton has been attempting to extricate himself from a confrontation with Black Lives Matter protesters, trying both to hold to his position and step back from it. It’s been an awkward dance.

But it speaks to a broader problem for the 42nd president of the United States. Clinton is caught in a time warp, having to grapple with how much the era in which he served, the events that occurred then and the actions he took as president have been reinterpreted and, by many in his own party, rejected.

Clinton is a gifted campaigner and remains a popular ex-president. There are few politicians more skilled at synthesizing and explaining issues or making a political argument, as he demonstrated repeatedly in his advocacy for President Obama in the 2012 campaign.

But this is 2016, not 1992 or 1996, and things have changed — particularly within the Democratic Party. Clinton’s exchange with the Black Lives Matter demonstrators over the 1994 crime bill and in particular Hillary Clinton’s use of the term “superpredators” at the time brought into high relief the conundrum he and she face.

Among other things, that 1994 crime bill instituted tough sentencing provisions that resulted in high rates of incarceration for many young African Americans convicted of nonviolent offenses. That provision in particular is now seen by many people as too harsh. Many of the politicians who supported it then — including Sen. Bernie Sanders — have said it went too far. Hillary Clinton is in that camp. So is Bill Clinton.

Former president Bill Clinton angrily told Black Lives Matter protesters that they "are defending the people who kill the lives you say matter," spending more than 10 minutes facing down the protesters at a campaign rally for his wife in Philadelphia. (Reuters)

[Bill Clinton almost apologizes for exchange with Black Lives Matter]

When he engaged with the demonstrators, arguing that the bill had actually done some good things, too, while defending his wife’s characterization, some analysts wondered whether this could be another Sister Souljah moment, harking back to Clinton’s repudiation of remarks the hip-hop singer and political activist had made about blacks killing whites.

Clinton’s Sister Souljah comments in 1992 drew immediate criticism from the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson (it was at a Jackson-hosted meeting that Clinton made the remarks). But they served the larger strategy of his campaign, which was to show that the Democratic Party was moving away from interest-group politics and cultural liberalism toward the political center, with a fixation on the middle class, jobs and the economy.

The confrontation last week turned out not to be another Sister Souljah moment. Instead, it was a reminder to Clinton of the new terms of debate on racial matters and the reinterpretation of the 1990s through the lens of a quarter-century later.

After his exchange last week, Clinton said he almost wanted to apologize and said it was regrettable that the two sides had talked past each other. He then campaigned Sunday on his wife’s behalf in three African American churches, seeking to ensure the strongest possible minority support for her in next Tuesday’s New York primary (which looks likely). On Monday, he was still trying to explain himself for what had happened the week before.

The whole issue could well be reprised Wednesday, when Hillary Clinton is scheduled to speak to the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network conference in New York. Sharpton criticized Bill Clinton for last week’s exchange.

[Sanders said Bill Clinton should apologize]

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The Black Lives Matter episode is not the only example of how the Clinton presidency is seen in a different light today. Clinton’s staunch advocacy of free trade, his support for financial institution deregulation and the fact that his economic team was staffed by Wall Street figures all are viewed with far greater skepticism by Democrats today. That is why Sanders has gathered such energy behind his candidacy and why Hillary Clinton has had to tack left to keep up with the base.

Bill Clinton was an eloquent advocate of free trade, as a candidate in 1992 and as president. Former president George H.W. Bush, after listening to Clinton make the case for the North American Free Trade Agreement at a White House ceremony, quipped that it should be pretty clear why the silver-tongued Clinton was now occupying the Oval Office and he was on the outside.

Clinton championed NAFTA and free trade in the face of opposition of organized labor and many Democrats. Today, that anti-trade sentiment among party activists is even more intense, throwing both Clintons on the defensive. Exhibit A is Hillary Clinton’s opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership after she championed its potential as President Obama’s secretary of state.

For Sanders, the trade issue has been clear-cut. He has long opposed such trade deals. To him, the TPP was one more example of the downside of globalization and a potential cudgel against Clinton in their contest for the Democratic nomination. But even though Clinton now sides with him rather than Obama, Sanders continues to use consistency on the issue as a line of demarcation in their debates.

The same can be said about Wall Street and the financial industry. Bill Clinton made a turn toward the bankers early in his presidency — and over the objection of many of his political advisers — as he prepared his first economic program.

His administration was populated with advisers who were partial to or straight out of Wall Street, from Lloyd Bentsen, his first Treasury secretary and the former chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, to influential economic counselors Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, both of whom went on to serve as Clinton Treasury secretaries.

The economic record of the Clinton administration is enviable: more than 20 million jobs created and a balanced federal budget during his second term. That is the legacy of the Clinton years that Hillary Clinton wants to embrace. But it is the other legacies that compete for attention and which have caused her and her husband some discomfort.

Bill Clinton is widely admired within the Democratic Party and is still a powerful asset to his wife as she seeks the presidency a second time. But the party has moved from its New Democrat identity of a quarter-century ago, and a new generation of activists — and an older generation of progressives — has changed the terrain. It’s enough to cause even the most agile of politicians to lose their balance.

Corection: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said said Lloyd Bentsen was chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. He was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. The story has been corrected.