Bill Clinton: Sleeping Giant

I had seven or eight carefully selected screen shots to share with you featuring Clinton with his Irish up.  But really, is there a more telling frame than this?

I’m was as gratified as anybody to see Clinton stand up to Fox, Chris Wallace, ABC, the neocons, the whole cabal.  The only problem is, where has he been all this time, and where is he going to be tomorrow, and the next day?  On the politics, I completely agree with Arianna Huffington and Matt Stoler about the Fox News Sunday Clinton interview/ambush.  Clinton may have performed admirably, but he has otherwise been MIA on the GWOT since he left office.

Arianna suggests WJC could learn something by watching the video of the interview a couple of times.  Well, Clinton could watch this video a hundred times and there’s still no way he would learn anything.  Bubba’s fatal, and ultimately masochistic flaw is that he desperately needs to be loved by everybody.  The problem — expressed at the personal level — killed him politically, and the problem — manifest at the political level — is hurting us both ways.

Having read quite a few posts about the interview, along with dozens and dozens of excerpts, what I haven’t seen is the quote that jumped out for me.  It was near the end of the lecture/diatribe when Clinton interjected:

“I’ve never criticized President Bush, and I don’t think it is useful.”

If you believe Clinton was doing his bit for the party, that conclusion just doesn’t fit with the man.  Clinton was personally attacked and he fought back.  But there’s a world of difference between standing up for your party, and getting hot in defense of your own name.

Video clip (via think progress) here.

(image: Fox News Sunday via thinkprogress.  September 24, 2006.)