Bill Clinton was a guest of the David Letterman show last night where he gave a tepid endorsement of Barack Obama. The next guest was Chris Rock who is genetically incapable of being tepid. He gave a near-belligerent excoriation of Clinton’s performance:

“Is it me, or he [Clinton] didn’t want to say the name Barack Obama? He did not … He went through everything he could do … “Well like Hillary would want to do with the economy…” Hillary ain’t running. Hillary’s not running. What the hell?”

If everybody hates Chris, he apparently doesn’t care. He makes an interesting point. Why is the Clintons’ support of Obama so tepid and muted? Some openly speculate that they want Obama to lose so that Hillary will have a better shot in 2012. I have no idea if that is true, but the more they withhold their enthusiasm for Obama, the more they give their supporters license to do the same.

As the chart above shows, more than twice the amount of Clinton’s primary supporters, as compared to Obama’s primary supporters, now expect McCain to win the general election. Also, three times as many Clinton primary supporters (over Obama primary supporters) say Obama doesn’t understand their needs, but that McCain does.

If they really want Obama to win, now would be the time to say it – loudly, like Chris Rock.