"Promise"

"Promise." That's the subject line of an bulk e-mail I got from Bill Clinton. Without any hint of irony.

Carly Simon to Bill Clinton

You're so vain, you probably think this convention's about you.

Maureen Dowd sings along.

Bill Clinton: Hillary too senile for 3 a.m.

Bill Clinton is supposed to be one of the most seasoned politicians, like since Caesar but you couldn't prove it from his behavior in his wife's campaign. He hurt her with his misstatements and racially charged comments in South Carolina. Last month his wife "misspoke" about being under sniper fire instead of attending a welcoming ceremony in Bosnia, a "misstatement" easily shown to be wrong when video emerged of her being greeted by a little girl at the airport, politicians and army brass. Leave it to the Clintons to elevate a misstatement into a self-serving lie.

The media derision of that lie (sorry, I misspoke, I meant misstatement) has subsided, so why is master politician Bill Clinton bringing it up again? In Indiana he mentions it in a speech, and says:

"But there was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated and immediately apologized for it, what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995. Did y'all see all that.

Yes, we saw it.

Okay, she was tired and it was late at night. Only, it wasn't -- it was actually a mid-morning speech. I guess it depends on what the definition of "time" is. Not to mention the fact that she made this "misstatement" on more than one occasion.

If bringing the whole thing up was mistake one, misstating the facts was mistake two, mistake three was the excuse Bill gave for her: she was too tired and aged to it right. He says (of reporters):

And some of them when they're 60 they'll forget something when they're tired at 11:00 at night, too."

Crisis in the world? 3 a.m. anyone? Geritol?

Bill Clinton -- Front and Center

In today's Washington Post, front page, above the fold, below a headline "The Battleground" -- this picture:











How can there be any doubt that we'd be electing not one Clinton but two, that a Clinton win would not only be a historic first but a restoration of what was.

The Clinton Roundup

Here's what some people have been saying about the Clintons in the past few days. And these are Democrats.

Let's start with Robert Reich, Bill Clinton's former labor secretary:

I write this more out of sadness than anger. Bill Clinton’s ill-tempered and ill-founded attacks on Barack Obama are doing no credit to the former President, his legacy, or his wife’s campaign. Nor are they helping the Democratic party. While it may be that all is fair in love, war, and politics, it’s not fair – indeed, it’s demeaning – for a former President to say things that are patently untrue (such as Obama’s anti-war position is a “fairy tale”) or to insinuate that Obama is injecting race into the race when the former President is himself doing it

Colbert King:

Item: Billary loves to whine about the "politics of personal destruction." But Billary's campaign has taken to the low road, running ads falsely accusing Obama of supporting federal deficits and private Social Security accounts, and distorting his position on hot-button issues such as abortion. Newark Mayor Corey Booker, who branded the attacks "outrageous" and "dishonest," told Newsweek's Jonathan Alter: "We're trying to offer an alternative to the Republicans' fear and smear campaigns, and now we're being dragged down to their level by the Clintons."

William Greider

The recent roughing-up of Barack Obama was in the trademark style of the Clinton years in the White House. High-minded and self-important on the surface, smarmily duplicitous underneath, meanwhile jabbing hard to the groin area. They are a slippery pair and come as a package. The nation is at fair risk of getting them back in the White House for four more years. The thought makes me queasy....

...The [Clinton] style is very familiar to official Washington, not just among the Clintons' partisan adversaries, but among their supporters. The man lied to his friends. All the time. They got used to it. They came to expect it. I observe a good many old hands among the Senate Democrats are getting behind Obama. It would be good to know more about why they declined to make the more obvious choice of endorsing the power couple.

I Wonder What's Making Him Lose Sleep?

Words and Deeds

Bill Clinton is stumping for his wife in the Silver State, and acknowledges that Obama has the words but does he have the experience to turn words into deeds?

Since the former prez has invited us to think about words and deeds, I'd like to point out that during his administration he said the right words about gay rights, but when it came to deeds gave us Don't Ask Don't Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act.

Words. And deeds. Indeed.

Andrew Sullivan expands on the theme.

Bill Clinton's 9 to 1 Advantage

Bill Clinton is stumping for his wife. Small problem:

But reporters who have tallied his words say that he talks more about himself than about his wife -- at a ratio of about 9 to 1.

But he does admit Hillary is a "world class genius." After all, she was smart enough to marry Him, right?