Bill Clinton again wagging finger, raising eyebrows

By Deborah Charles

SPARTANBURG, South Carolina (Reuters) - The resurgence of the old Bill Clinton, flushing with anger and wagging his finger as he fights for his wife's presidential bid, has cast a shadow over her campaign and could mar his new image as a global statesman.

On Friday, Hillary Clinton herself said her husband had told her he may have gone too far. "He said several times yesterday that maybe he got a little bit carried away," she told CBS's "Early Show."

She was speaking one day before South Carolina votes to select a party candidate for the November election, having seen her early hopes for an easy win in the state-by-state process dashed by mixed results in early state contests.

The former president, who has built on his reputation as a world figure through international charity work since leaving office seven years ago, has done what he said he would not do again -- get back down and dirty on a campaign trail.

This time, of course, he is acting on behalf of Hillary, not himself, but senior Democrats worry that the party itself could be damaged as well as Hillary's struggle.

In Spartanburg, where he addressed a crowd of Hillary supporters on Friday, the former president exuded good will to Hillary's opponents, avoiding the kind of sharp comments and eruptions that marked some appearances elsewhere.

"I like this election because I haven't had to be against anybody. I like these people who are running... I like the people who have withdrawn," he said to chuckles.

But the issue of his role in the campaign was clearly on his mind. When one man stood and said: "I think Hillary's got something that I know nobody else got and that's you," he responded to laughter: "Some people think that's hurting her."

He left the meeting without speaking to reporters.

CLINTON'S EMOTIONS

Clinton, now 61, was known for emotional political campaigns and sometime volcanic bouts of anger during his eight-year term but has shown a new mellowness out of office. He has energetically embraced his role as international philanthropist through the Clinton Global Initiative.

But flashes of the old bare-knuckle campaigner erupted during early contests in New Hampshire and Nevada, especially after Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, an African American, won the first contest in Iowa and threatened to thwart Hillary's ambitions.

He dismissed Obama's contention of consistently opposing the Iraq war as a "fairy tale." On Wednesday he upbraided a CNN reporter who asked him to comment on a suggestion that Clinton campaign tactics had raised the issue of race. Clinton said reporters were being fed such questions by Obama's campaign.

"So they just spin you up on this, and you happily go along. The people don't care about this. They never ask about it. And you are determined to take this election away from them," he said, waving his finger at the reporter. Video clips of the exchange have been viewed widely on the Internet.

The Dallas Morning News editorial page felt compelled to comment, writing that "there's something disconcerting, even diminishing, about watching a former president get down and dirty on the campaign trail."

For Americans the finger-wagging recalled Clinton's similar gesture when on television he furiously denied accusations -- later proved true -- of his having had sex with White House intern Monica Lewinsky when he was president.

South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, a powerful black congressman who has vowed to stay neutral in the race, told the political Web site Huffington Post that Clinton's outspoken campaign tactics may damage his reputation in the long-term.

Commentator John Gappel of the Financial Times, said Clinton had "adopted tactics that, if he does not curb himself soon, may tarnish his global brand irreparably. That would be a shame, not only for him but also for the causes that he has placed his weight behind."

Clinton still remains a hugely popular figure among core Democrats -- especially in small towns in the South. He was given standing ovations at South Carolina events where he spent hours discussing policy details and shaking hands.

Polls give Obama the lead going into the South Carolina vote, but the result, and the impact of Bill Clinton's interventions, will only be known when the votes are counted on Saturday night.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland in Washington and Ed Stoddard in Dallas; Editing by David Storey)

http://www.reuters.com/article/politics ... 22&sp=true

Comments


I'm writing to you from Port Vila, Vanuatu--I came to the South Pacific years ago as a Peace Corps Volunteer.
It is interesting to see how so many people respond to the spin that CNN and others (especially Fox) have given to things. Bill Clinton is right to be angry with the media. This is a close race. And what happens in close races in the Olympics? Or at Santa Anita? The racers will bump into each other. That's not dirty politics. That's not race. That's not sexism. Its physics and the competitive spirit.
When will Americans wake up to the Big Brother role that their media have taken on?

Posted by cdjd1170

shame on us for keeping these two in power. why shouldn't they hang in there. We hold the power which is why she's begging, aka, campaigning for our votes.

Posted by cdjd1170

the clintons remind me of crappy, mean parents who verbally abuse you...they always mad...make them go away, please!

Posted by karu4254

So many of the comments here reflect what most democrats are feeing and thinking. The Clintons are bringing disaster to what was once a hopeful dream - to have another democrat in the white house. What I do not understand is why is the press collaborating with them in this by covering so much of Bill Clinton on his voyage of destruction??? He is not running for office, and yet they provide non-stop coverage. Can't anyone cover those with real issues rather than any angry ranting man??

Posted by wbed9072

If a Women wants to be President of the United States shouldn't she do her own talking?

Over the past two weeks no one has heard a word from Hillary. Her husband Bill is doing all the talking.

Hillary clearly lacks the ability to be president. Even if her husband Bill says so.

Posted by duan4641

Match picture to "I did not have sex with that women"!

Posted by smil2990

God help our nation if hilly would get elected. We don't need or want the 2 headed' multi-personality beast that has shown up as the democratic candidate. she isn't responsible, doesn't have any experience and he is the only modern president to be impeached and disbarred for lying. yes biily the majority of the americans do know your mental illness regardless what you try telling the press you don't control the majority. go ahead point your finger and cry. Vote your conscious Americans not what billy and hilly lie to you about.


Posted by whit4624

Bill and Hillary have proven time and time again that they are willing to do anything to get elected to public office. They are very shrewed, and know exactly what they are saying and doing at all times. There are no 'off the cuff' sorts of remarks, nor do they ever say anything that has not been highly vetted beforehand.

They knew exactly what they were doing when the played the race card, and enjoyed every minute of it; figuring that they could afford to lose the Black vote, so long as Hillary can claim the over 45, White female vote. And if they were lucky, they could throw in a few White male votes as well, by appearing on Al Sharpton's program. You know, the guy White (and most of Black) America loves to hate! Will that be enough for her to get into the Whitehouse? We'll sure see soon!

And for those of you that are intent to find some skeletons in Obama's closet, or to have the media skewer him on matters of public policy, take heart. For every skeleton Obama may have, the Clinton's most likely have three; and for every mistake Obama might make in his public policy, Bill will make at least 3 more regarding race or ethic issues! So, I guess your problem will be, whose skeletons or blunder's will be worse?

I'll place money on Bill and his Co-Presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton!

Posted by jeke4612

Hillary rules! So what if Bill is wagging a finger? He's wagged worse at others!

Posted by arpe4610

I think that Obama must be confused as to against whom he is running. I know that I am.


Posted by cdjd1170

In order to get a picture with a president and first lady, you need to donate BIG BUCKS ...i'm sure the slum landlord gave plenty. Is hillary going to give it back now that she's busted?


Oh dear, here we go again, and don't we all know what that stupid finger pointing is. The former impeached president is trying to make himself the issue to deflect from his barely qualified wife. Will she give back the money she took from the slum lord?


Barrack Obama In His Own Words.............
"There were enough of us on campus to constitute a tribe, and when it came to hanging out many of us chose to function like a tribe, staying close together, traveling in packs," he wrote. "It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names."

He added: "To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists."

Obama said he and other blacks were careful not to second-guess their own racial identity in front of whites.

"To admit our doubt and confusion to whites, to open up our psyches to general examination by those who had caused so much of the damage in the first place, seemed ludicrous, itself an expression of self-hatred," he wrote.

In the period from high school in Hawaii, to Columbia University and then to the streets of Chicago as a community organizer, Obama is the classic angry young black man, describing his world thusly:

"We were always playing on the white man's court -- by the white man's rules. If the principal, or the coach, or a teacher wanted to spit in your face, he could, because he had the power and you didn't. The only thing you could choose was withdrawal into a smaller and smaller coil of rage."

Obama once described the white race as “that ghostly figure that haunted black dreams.â€