Obama Needs Bill Clinton to Take on Smashmouth Sarah Palin
The Obama campaign needs former President Bill Clinton, soon, to inject some silver-tongued excitement into the Democratic drive for the White House.
And Obama needs Bill Clinton to take on the dirty, undignified task of verbally jousting with gleeful smashmouth Sarah Palin. Bill, of course, is uniquely talented to roll in the proverbial mud with the truth-challenged governor from Alaska... and with great aplomb and pleasure, if he's let loose.
Fortunately, Barack and Bill are doing lunch tomorrow at their first private sit-down since Obama won the Democratic primary race in June.
Word circulated a few months ago that for him to stump for Obama, Bill Clinton was demanding his own private plane funded by the campaign, a request that Obama balked at. The Clintons notoriously live large on the road, much larger than the frugal Obama campaign.
Obama would be foolish, though, to not supply Bill Clinton's campaigning requests. The hard truth is that, at the moment, Barack Obama needs Bill Clinton more than Bill needs Barack.
(Atlhough this could also be a well-timed opportunity for Bill to make amends with voters for his memorable primary campaign faux pas... )
Many believe Al Gore made a strategic blunder in not using Clinton on the 2000 campaign trail, and John Kerry also made minimal use of the Clintons in the 2004 presidential race.
After all, in his astute, fully-supportive speech at the Democratic Convention in Denver, Bill Clinton presented a thoughtfully convincing case for electing Obama to the White House. (Read Bill Clinton's Speech at the '08 Democratic Convention.)
Bill and Hillary Clinton have done their part, thus far, to support the Obama campaign. Barack Obama now needs to do his part by fully accepting that, without question, he needs the Clintons for him to win this race. And he needs to give them what they want, in return.
At heart, Obama is a political pragmatist. I believe he'll make the right decision, as he (ultimately) did in selecting his running mate.
So here's to hoping that Barack and Bill enjoy a productive, harmonious lunch tomorrow...
... and that we'll soon have the delight of hearing exuberant orator Clinton take on the charismatic, say-anything Republican vice-presidential candidate.
Seriously, I can hardly wait!
(Photo taken on August 27, 2008: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Comments
Unfortunately, Obama might be a political opportunist more than a pragmatist. He’s just lucky the Clinton are public servants and care so deeply about the country…and that they are willing to forgive an opponent who dissed Clinton’s record and called him a racist. Obama owes Bill a lot more than a plane ride.
I can`t see an impeached adulterous ex president being able to take on Sarah Palin.
He certainly isn`t an Icon of Obama`s strategy of change, and I do not believe he helped Hillary`s campaign as much as some may believe that he did. Bill`s blind faithful shall not win much besides a photo op.
Where’s Joe Biden these days? Didn’t he join the ticket with the idea of actually doing or saying something to help?