There have been a slew of stories about how Bill Clinton will be taking a back seat in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Even the former president told Town & Country he’d be “backstage” in his wife presidential campaign.
And yet, Bill is everywhere. With Hillary taking a very low profile (her refusal to give a media interview or have an open campaign event with voters), Bill is the backseat driver of his wife’s presidential campaign.
Consider his many recent appearances. Last week, Clinton gave the campaign’s first interview of the presidential race to NBC. In that media appearance, he defended his costly speechmaking by claiming he’s “gotta pay the bills.” Then he sat with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour for another interview.
This week he gave an interview to Fusion’s Alicia Menendez (the daughter of indicted New Jersey senator Bob Menendez). “If I were advising candidates, you have to have a credible position on immigration reform, the only thing that makes sense is a path to citizenship,” he reportedly told his interlocutor.
Tonight he will be in New York City for one of David Letterman’s final shows. “The guest list has been announced for David Letterman’s penultimate week of the “Late Show,” and once again, the week features a U.S. president,” the Los Angeles Times reported. “Former President Clinton will make his 10th visit to the ‘Late Show’ to say goodbye to Dave. He made his first appearance as a guest on the show in 2002.”
And later this week, Clinton will be in Atlanta at the American Institute of Architects meeting to pay some family bills.
“While Hillaryland wants to keep Bill out of the spotlight, it’s clear he has no desire to reside in the shadows. To be fair to Bill, I’ve never met a political spouse who is comfortable with their significant other being subject to scrutiny and criticism,” writes one veteran Republican campaign hand in an email.
“But with Bill it’s different – it’s his legacy that’s at stake. Hillary is breaking from his record, which suggests to voters that his record on many hot topics were failures, that’s got to bug someone like Bill. But Bill is not just assuming the normal defensive spouse role, he’s also acting as an irritated former politician desperate to defend his own record at a time his wife is trying to define her candidacy.
“Bill has spent his whole adult life trying to be powerful, rich, and famous – that’s who he is, that’s who he wants to be, and his actions suggest he isn’t going to change. The question people seem to be asking ‘is Bill going to learn from his mistakes in ’08?’ I guess that depends on what the definition of ‘is’ is.”
