Barack Obama Needs Bill Clinton, Even if He Can’t Control Him
The current president is learning that there is both an upside and a downside to having a former one — particularly one with whom he has tangled in the past — as the most prominent surrogate for his reelection bid.
On the one hand, Bill Clinton brings to bear an unrivaled standing and stature in making the case that Barack Obama deserves a second term in the White House; on the other, he creates a big mess to clean up when he goes off-message.
Former President Bill Clinton says it’s essential for the nation to re-elect President Obama. Clinton and Obama appeared together at a fundraiser in New York Monday night.
Such has been the awkward case several times in the past week. The latest instance came on Tuesday, less than a day after he appeared at three fundraisers for Obama in New York, when Clinton argued for temporarily extending the George W. Bush-era tax cuts — even those for the wealthy — that are due to expire at the end of the year.
Obama opposes renewing the cuts for those earning more than $250,000 a year.
In the ensuing furor over Clinton’s comments in an interview on CNBC, the former president’s spokesman, Matt McKenna, issued a statement attempting to reconcile the former and current presidents’ positions. He insisted that Clinton, while opposing tax cuts for the wealthy, was merely acknowledging the political reality that no long-term deal is likely to be reached until after the election