Report: Hillary Aides Privately Furious With Bill Over Iraq Misstep (TPM)

[jefferson_dem]

:popcorn:

Report: Hillary Aides Privately Furious With Bill Over Iraq Misstep
By Greg Sargent - December 10, 2007, 11:49AM

Is infighting and tension on the rise in the Clinton camp? Via the Page, Bloomberg's Al Hunt reports that there's some finger-pointing going on in the Clinton camp about Hillary's recent struggles, with senior Hillary advisers upset at Bill over his recent claim that he'd been against the Iraq invasion from the start:

Top Clinton campaign officials were privately furious at the former president, saying he had revived the complaint that the Clintons lack credibility, unfairly tarnishing his wife in the process.

For his part, the former president, one close associate says, has been bouncing off the walls at the campaign's ineptitude in the past few weeks. (It is not known if the Clintons shared any of these sentiments with each other).

The former assertion, that Hillary aides were upset about Bill's comment, sounds credible to me; the latter one comes across a bit like Bill's people trying to wiggle out of blame for his screw-up. Of course, this is based on anonymous sources, so make of it what you will.

http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/12/report_hillary_aides_privately_furious_with_bill_over_iraq_misstep.php

[saracat]

1. Bill may not be the asset they thought.He talks way too much about himself.Methinks he is not that

enthusiastic about a Hillary presidency .He would rather be president again himself and can't get past it.He has said he loved being President and would really have liked another term,he hated stepping down.

[Botany]

2. Bill is Hillary's biggest asset

After he was impeached in the great blow job hunt his approval #s
were @ 70%.

Hillary's big negative is Hillary. Many people feel that major money
& media were cramming Ms. Clinton down our throats.

[AlGore-08.com]

4. His job rating was positive, his personal (likability) rating was about negative 60

His personal likability rating was slightly lower than 60% in swing and southern states. People tend to either not know that or forget it - - it was why he was used behind the scenes by both HRC and Gore in 2000. In 2004, Bill Clinton was still divisive enough that Team Kerry wasn't sure how to use him in some way that would attract more swing votes than he lost.

The fact that Clinton has gone off message so many times in this campaign should not be a surprise to anybody. In 2000 and 2004 he did the same thing.

All that said, Bill Clinton does poll better than Hillary Clinton does at the moment.

[Botany]

5. Bill does have some draw backs but he is one of the most gifted speakers ....

.... in America's history. I have heard him in person 3 times and
he is a force of nature.

As far as people not feeling good about him a good chunk of those people
were fed "hate" by a multi million dollar anti Bill Clinton industry. "They"
spent 7 years and 70 million $s in the great "White-Water Scandal." Although
for some who feel that abortion is murder and that gays are out to take over
America "they" will always hate Clinton.

[Adelante]

3. I can easily see this

"bouncing off the walls at the campaign's ineptitude in the past few weeks"

And I don't think it's necessarily covering for his Iraq statement.

[Imagevision]

6. Bill Clinton has begun to sound redundant, I mean it's one trick pony time...

[suston96]

7. Bloomberg's Al Hunt....

...is a Clintons hater from way back.

[JackORoses]

8. the Wheels on the Bus roll over Bill, over Bill, over Bill

the Wheels on the Bus roll over Bill
he's now a Liability