Hm.

 

I thought much of this was interesting, given that Bill Clinton will have a prominent role at the Dims' convention this week: Let's Be Friends by Ryan Lizza.

 

.... With many of Obama’s senior political advisers—Axelrod, Messina, Robert Gibbs, Stephanie Cutter, Ben LaBolt—now in Chicago working on his reëlection campaign, the Administration in Washington has taken on the aura of a Clinton alumni association. Obama’s chief of staff, Jacob Lew, and his main economic adviser, Gene Sperling, were top Clinton aides. Bruce Reed, formerly Clinton’s chief domestic-policy adviser, and Steve Ricchetti, Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, now work at the White House, as Biden’s chief of staff and counsellor, respectively. The three top Obama Cabinet positions are held by Clinton veterans: Secretary of State Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. It’s only a slight exaggeration to say that the many staffing changes since 2010 have resulted in the Obama camp running the campaign while the Clinton camp runs the government.

Given the political stalemate in Washington and the anemic economy, turning the campaign into a choice between the Bush years and the Clinton years makes strategic sense. And, after constant complaints by Republicans, Obama has finally stopped blaming Bush for the poor economy. Clinton can do that work instead. Embraced by both parties, he is better equipped than Obama to make the case that Bush squandered the good fortune and budget surpluses of the nineteen-nineties and left the current President with multiple crises to clean up.

For Clinton, the politics are more complicated. His associates take it as a given that he would like nothing more than to see his wife become President. Hillary Clinton will step down as Secretary of State after the campaign and begin the process of deciding whether she will run in 2016.

By some measures, a defeat for Obama in November would leave Hillary the undisputed leader of her party and propel her toward the Oval Office that much faster. At least one of Clinton’s closest advisers seems to be backing that strategy. According to two people with direct knowledge, Douglas Band [who has "been with" President Clinton since 1995] has said that he will vote for Romney. Band declined to comment....

 

Comments

[Mannie Sherberg]

Hillary's many pals among the Dims must realize that the disaster of another four years of Obama will likely make any Democrat unelectable in 2016. The really smart guys in the Clinton camp -- like James Carville and Lanny Davis -- are far too hard-headed to believe Obama would do anything in the next four years other than poison the wells for every other Dim in sight. That means that they and Bill really don't have much choice; despite pretending otherwise, they must covertly do whatever they can to gum up the works for the Obama/Biden ticket. It's now or never.