The best contribution that Bill Clinton could make to his wife's campaign is to attest to the achievements and advice she provided during his presidency and to the work she has since done as a senator. Hillary Clinton has made much of what she sees as her advantage in experience over Obama, and no one was a closer witness of the White House years than her husband.
But instead of restricting himself to positive statements on behalf of Hillary Clinton, he has taken it upon himself not just to disparage Obama but also to accuse the media of failing to look critically enough at the Illinois senator. These statements by the former president are likely to remind voters of his griping about Republican critics and the press during the darker days of his own administration. The intensity of his campaigning will also raise questions about how much of a role he would have in the White House if Hillary Clinton does become president.
Two so-far neutral Democratic members of Congress, Senator Edward Kennedy and Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, have told the former president, in Clyburn's term, to "chill a little bit." Kennedy, Clyburn, and other party leaders know only too well that a bitterly divisive campaign for the nomination fought over offhand remarks about Martin Luther King Jr. and Ronald Reagan will cheapen whoever emerges as the nominee. Bill Clinton should take Kennedy's and Clyburn's advice and get back on the high road.
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