What Hillary should do with Bill

[IndianaGreen]

Evan Thomas

The Marriage Tax

A new book questions how Bill would affect President Hillary.

Nov 5, 2007 | Updated: 5:00 p.m. ET Nov 5, 2007

If Hillary Clinton wins next November, on the day after she is inaugurated she should put her husband on a plane around the world and tell him not to come back until she's a private citizen again. At least that's what I couldn't help thinking as I read "For Love of Politics," Sally Bedell Smith's new book on the Clintons in the White House during Bill's presidency. Bill Clinton is already a great salesman for America in the world. He loves to travel, he loves crowds, he speaks with empathy and charm. Though by law Mrs. Clinton cannot formally appoint her husband to a federal job, she can make him an informal ambassador plenipotentiary.

She should send him to the Middle East, to Russia, to China, to Europe or South America or Africa or the North Pole—anywhere, just as long as she gets him out of the White House. Given modern communications, even the other side of the world may not be far enough away. It is clear from reading Smith's book (something that all political journalists need to do, and not just skim) that anyone who thinks he's voting just for Hillary on Election Day is naive. The Clintons are a political package, a two-for-one bargain, a duo inextricably intertwined. Judging from the evidence provided by Smith, they are also an unhappily married couple whose relationship would inevitably affect Hillary's judgment and actions. Bill will insist that he will be hands-off, but everything we know about him suggests that he will be meddling at every turn. He loves politics and being the center of attention too much. He will be America's first unelected vice president, also its first unconfirmed secretary of state, unconfirmed secretary of the treasury, etc.

As I read Smith's book I was strongly reminded of a notion I first read about in the Aubrey-Maturin novels by the late Patrick O'Brian. Capt. Aubrey's companion, the shrewd Dr. Maturin, perceived that moral superiority is corrosive in a relationship. It undermines the trust and intimacy that are essential to a good friendship, more so to a good marriage.

Bill Clinton is in almost every way a superior politician to his wife. He is in many ways a better leader. But he is morally inferior, not just because of his philandering but because of his natural inconstancy. The stress of not being able to trust the man she loves has had a strong negative effect on Hillary. It has made her harder, harsher, more brittle, and secretive herself. Certainly that is the way she comes off in Smith's thoroughly reported book.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/68512

[Tellurian]

1. I prefer a comparison between Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson...

a much better fit relating to politics, charm, strategy and undeniable success.

[Ken Burch]

3. Ok...but in THIS case...

Which one is Nelson and which one is Hamilton?

[Tellurian]

13. ha..in the abstract...it's a combination of the two..

Both in their own right brought unique gifts to the relationship. Together, their accomplishments were unparalleled in that moment of history.

[oasis]

2. BC mentioned in his Las Vegas speech, that he had visited 90 countries since leaving

the White House. I would suspect that many world leaders would like to see Bill take, at least, a behind the scenes role in foreign policy.

[aquart]

7. Dammit, Bill! You've had heart surgery. SLOW DOWN.

I don't care that you've been watching your diet. This is ridiculous.

[FREEWILL56]

4. Actually many would like to see Bill back in the white house

but that won't happen as hillary does plan to send him away. That means that those who'd vote for hillary to get him back into the white house may change their minds about voting for her.

[Apollo11]

10. You think people will base their votes on that??

How many days each month will Bill Clinton spend in Washington DC, if Hillary is President?

I don't see how this is relevant to Hillary's qualities as a Presidential candidate.

It's also something that we will not be able to know in advance with any accuracy.

If there is any effect at all, I think that the thought of Bill hanging around the Whitehouse would be a reason for some people to think twice before electing Hillary to the Presidency.

For some people - the name "Bill Clinton" is associated with a sour after-taste.

I guess Monica Lewinsky would come into that category. :eyes:

[FREEWILL56]

28. Many people like Bill and I am one of them, but I know that voting

hillary is not getting Bill back as president. Some people will think that. To compound things you are right that it is a sour after taste with many people too and they'll be the types to say vote one get the other so it doesn't look good that way either for some.
Yes, I believe many people will base their votes that way and I've heard dumber reasons for voting for or against a candidate in the past whether founded or not.
Like it or not there are people that have built in quarks and some would and should call them prejudices. It could be of association or disassociation, short or tall, good looking or ugly, woman or man, and even white or black among many others that I'd think of in time. I don't condone these reasons for ruling out or voting for a candidate as I prefer the better reasons for weighing with or against somebody based on experience, track records, any other records like military or criminal, views, etc.
From you concerning a sour taste: "I guess Monica Lewinsky would come into that category."
Now there's a thought as I think you're right as she spit.
:spray:
Getting vision out of my head.:banghead:

[IndianaGreen]

17. I expect Hillary to keep him away from young female staffers

unless she is more of an enabler than she has been.

[Tellurian]

23. He's also had to give up Double cheeseburgers, fries and thickshakes.

[CK_John]

5. The Gov of NY should appoint him to her Senate seat. n/t

[aquart]

6. Now that would be funny.

But very, very, very popular.

[CK_John]

8. I hope it happens. n/t

[IndianaGreen]

18. Spitzer is catching a lot of flak for his proposed drivers' license to illegal aliens

appointing Big Dog would be anathema to those that think we are a republic, not a monarchy.

[Tellurian]

21. Spitzer's model is not new..

There are similar programs in existence right now in Texas and Florida for licensing illegal aliens.

[IndianaGreen]

22. You want the Democratic nominee to embrace open borders and amnesty?

Because that's really what is at play here, and illegal immigration is a national security issue.

[Tellurian]

27. That was not Hillary's answer..

She embraces Spitzer as a friend and understands there are millions+ of illegals in NY and sympathizes with his problem. I think she was quite clear where she stands. Immigration is a Federal problem that has yet to be addressed. Here is her plan on Immigration.

http://clinton.senate.gov/issues/immigration/

[Tactical Progressive]

9. Is Evan Thomas still being a DC-insider Clinton-hater?

Why, yes he is.

Note to Evan: Bill Clinton is morally and ethically superior to anyone in the media clique, by a VERY large margin.
That includes you Evan.

[OKNancy]

11. Nanny-nanny-boo-boo

If the writer wants to scrawl some silliness and childish rhetoric, so can I.
I hope he poops his diaper when Bill and Hill are in the White House.

[Perry Logan]

12. I dream of a world where DUers don't post smears of Democrats...

It's insane to believe anything bad you hear about Bill Clinton. His was the cleanest administration of the 20th century--the cleanest two-term administration since Teddy Roosevelt.*

*as measured by the total number of convictions and forced resignations within his administration

[beaconess]

14. Thank you

And since his was also the most investigated administration in history, that's a pretty remarkable feat. Imagine how other administrations - before or since - would have fared had they had a Ken Starr with unlimited resources digging around in their drawers year after year? Certainly, their total number of convictions and forced resignations would have been even higher.

[Tellurian]

15. Absolutely..

The Democratic smears going on now, (read DC politics) are based on the results of a Republican administration not a Democratic one. The political distortions are not only unhealthy and unrealistic, it's debasing to everyone in the country.

[IndianaGreen]

16. Here is a fact about Bill: He kept open the torture and assassination school at Fort Benning

In typical Clintonian fashion he merely changed the name of the infamous School of the Americas, but kept the school open, and it remains open to this day training the next crop of torturers and assassins.

[Tellurian]

19. For those who expect perfection...

the sooner you accept the fact we are not perfect and we do the best we can with the cards we are dealt. Compared to the present administration, Bill Clinton is a saint.

[IndianaGreen]

24. Mussolini is a saint compared to Hitler.

Support for the Constitution and respect for human rights must be very important, or else we end up with budding tyrants like Bush.

Does Bill Clinton support putting impeachment back on the table?

[Tellurian]

26. In this case, I don't think advertising would be a good plan.

We already know Obama won't.

[Armstead]

20. Hey -- We're not supposed to point out inconvenient truths

Bill Clinton was a great president, Completely progressive while also being realistic. The world was a happy, happy place because he was president, and the sky was filled with pink fluffy bunnies.

He didn't condone things like torture or aggressive snooping on Americans and he wasn't a big supporter of Enron. That's all a myth.

[IndianaGreen]

25. And he didn't authorize rendition in 1993.

I am still trying to visualize a sky "filled with pink fluffy bunnies." :-)

We won't bring up the bombing of power plants in Belgrade in the middle of winter, a war crime!