It’s another “bad boys” edition of the Morning Jolt, looking at John Edwards, Ed Schultz, and Bill Clinton. Is the former president bored, mischief-making, unable to repress a desire to complicate life for Obama, or genuinely wanting to put the country’s interest first?
Bill Clinton Goes Rogue
Oh, he’s been dormant for a long time. But the wild, unpredictable, Obama-whacking Bill Clinton of early 2008 might just be back.
ABC News’ Jonathan Karl: “ABC News was behind the scenes with the Wisconsin Congressman and GOP Budget Committee Chairman when he got some words of encouragement none other than former President Bill Clinton. “‘So anyway, I told them before you got here, I said I’m glad we won this race in New York,’ Clinton told Ryan, when the two met backstage at a forum on the national debt held by the Pete Peterson Foundation. But he added, ‘I hope Democrats don’t use this as an excuse to do nothing.’ Ryan told Clinton he fears that now nothing will get done in Washington. ‘My guess is it’s going to sink into paralysis is what’s going to happen. And you know the math. It’s just, I mean, we knew we were putting ourselves out there. You gotta start this. You gotta get out there. You gotta get this thing moving,’ Ryan said. Clinton told Ryan that if he ever wanted to talk about it, he should ‘give me a call.’ Ryan said he would.”
I’m just glad Clinton didn’t begin the conversation, “What are you wearing right now?”
At Hot Air, Allahpundit hunts for the motive: “The last thing Obama, Reid, and Schumer want before the election is one of their own elder statesmen — one who’s personally popular and famous for budget-balancing, no less — pressuring them to inch out on the Medicare limb that’s cracking under Ryan. So . . . why would he do it? Could be that he’s earnestly concerned about the Medicare time bomb and appreciates Ryan’s leadership on it. Remember, before Erskine Bowles was co-chair of the Deficit Commission, he was Clinton’s White House chief of staff. Or it could be that Clinton’s worried about Democrats being perceived as debt do-nothings even though the public, for the moment at least, is with them on the specific issue of Medicare. As we saw earlier today, the more the GOP can drive home to voters that preserving the program as-is necessarily means raising the debt ceiling again and again, the more potentially vulnerable Democrats are. Or maybe Clinton doesn’t much care what the White House thinks or what it might do for the Democrats’ electoral prospects. Being an ex-president means never having to say you’re sorry. Why not let it rip? Whatever the answer, I think ’We’ve got to deal with these things. You cannot have health care devour the economy’ will make a dynamite little soundbite for attack ads next year. Get cracking on it, RNC.”
Bill Clinton gives the Republicans the perfect attack ad soundbite on the Ryan plan, just as Newt Gingrich gave Democrats their perfect one a week earlier. The two men are more psychologically similar to each other than either would like to admit.