People Still Whining About Mean Old Bill Clinton

Stories about Bill Clinton fighting Barry Obama in his bid for a third presidency were all over the news this week, because people like to get upset. No one's quite sure why he's going so "out of control" these days -- letting his face change color, composing Dadaist psychodramas about Barry's past, sneering at reporters -- but he's gotten an angry Barry to engage him, and now The Clintons are controlling the conversation. People may not like how Bill's wedging the Demrat party or hurting Barry's feelings. But it might be the time for everyone to "deal."

 Here 's a nice little roundup of Clinton's anger issues at the core of his recent news cycle domination. Many prominent Journalistic Political Insiders think Clinton is destroying himself and his "global brand" of being a nice politician:

Commentator John Gappel of the Financial Times, said Clinton had "adopted tactics that, if he does not curb himself soon, may tarnish his global brand irreparably. That would be a shame, not only for him but also for the causes that he has placed his weight behind."

Indeed, the Malawian tribes that worship his visits have been constantly reloading Drudge before making their final judgment on the man.

As the New York Times reported this morning, however, the Clinton campaign has some sort of strategy with all this anger; they almost algebraically plot when Bill gets pissy, and to what extent:

Mr. Clinton is deliberately trying to play bad cop against Mr. Obama, campaign officials say, and is keenly aware that a flash of anger or annoyance will draw even more media and public attention to his arguments....

They also see benefits in Mr. Clinton's drawing the ire of the Obama camp, predicting that there will be a voter backlash against Mr. Obama if the former president looks like a victim in the cut-and-thrust of the race.

This is what's so grating about the Barry campaign. For all the negative Bill takes for doing these attacks, there's probably more positive in the long-run, because he's still Bill Clinton . Now they're dictating the moves of the Obama campaign as much as they can and bringing Barry out of his "high road" comfort zone. Barry hopefully knew that by assuming the "high road" mantle, he would ultimately have to play the victim card when the Clintons got semi-nasty.

The victim card is for losers. If you'll remember the presidential election of 2004, John Kerry tried to take something of the "high road" against President Bush (doesn't taken much); but when the swift-boating came, his victimization didn't make the Morans in this country feel any nicer about his completely fraudulent and bullshit fake Vietnam tales, as they considered them. Remember that? When people were mad because Kerry couldn't fight back?

It's a sad thing, but all this just makes Hillary Clinton's chances look better than Barry's in the general election. The Republicans will throw out far worse than "he said nice things about Ronald Reagan" in their particular flavors of dirt. Where's the high road going to take him then?

Too bad for the poor Barry campaign, but it's their problem that the evil Bill Clinton monster snuck inside their door.

 Bill Clinton again wagging finger, raising eyebrows [Reuters]

 Clinton's Campaign Sees Value in Keeping Former President in Attack Mode [New York Times]