Six months ago, the conventional wisdom was clear: Bill Clinton was the Hillary campaign's secret weapon. As if her path to the nomniation wasn't already guranteed, as if the primary season wasn't just a mere foramality before her coronation, in the highly unlikely event that one of the other candidates (there are other candidates?) gave her any trouble, all she had to do was bring out Slick Willie: beloved Democratic icon and the undisputed master of campagining. Even the Republicans who despised him willingly admitted that no one could top Bill Clinton for pure campaigning skill. Together with Hillary, they would make an unstoppable combo. Right?
Right?
Once again, this election has defied conventional wisdom. Bill Clinton has turned out to be a major mixed blessing for his wife's campaign: at times her #1 spokesman, at others, an embarrassment. The trouble began early on, when he referred to Obama's Iraq War opposition as "the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen." But what really upset some voters was his comparing Obama's campaign to Jessie Jackson's failed 1984 White House bid. Many took it as Clinton implying that a black man could not become president.
The latest Clinton gaffe has come out of a Superdelegate meeting in California. It seems Clinton was talking with Rachel Binah, a Hillary supporter who once backed Bill Richardson. During the conversation, Binah expressed unhappiness with Clinton ally James Carville's use of the label "Judas" to describe Richardson.
Clinton exploded. It's no secret that there have been sore feelings between Richardson and the Clintons, who helped make Richardson's political career back in the 90's. But Clinton went on what was reportedly a very harsh, angry tirade in a room full of superdelegates -- the absolute last people the Clinton campaign wants to tick off.
No wonder that today, undeclared superdelegate Tom Harkin called for Clinton to "chill out."
It's good advice -- and as the Clintons are running out of time to turn this race around, it's advice Bill should consider taking.
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