Clinton Embraces Return to Ambassador Role

Source: Washington Post

After the Bitter Primaries, He Calls Charity 'My Life'

KIGALI, Rwanda, Aug. 2 -- There will be no Clinton restoration -- not this year, at least. But the rehabilitation of Bill Clinton has begun.

The former president in many ways ended the Democratic primary campaign more isolated than his wife, with his own friends and allies unhappy with his flashes of anger and ill-chosen words and blaming him in part for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's defeat. With a negligible relationship with Sen. Barack Obama -- he has spoken to him just once since the primaries -- Clinton has been shut out of the Obama campaign almost entirely and does not know even basic things, such as the role he will play at the Democratic convention.

It is uncharted territory for the most successful Democratic politician of his generation, and part of the reason he was in Kigali on Saturday, the latest stop in a grueling journey across Africa to visit some of the places where his charitable foundation has been active -- and in the process re-establish his role as a global elder statesman. At the same time, Clinton began, slowly, to discuss the bruising Democratic primary season that ended two months earlier.

In his first extended interview since his wife exited the campaign in defeat, Clinton said he was glad to be back doing international foundation work. "This is my life now, and I was eager to get back to it, and I couldn't be happier," Clinton said in a hotel suite, with three aides looking on.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/02/AR2008080201674.html

"Clinton volunteered very little praise of Obama, beyond describing him as "smart" and "a good politician" when asked about him toward the end of the interview. He did, however, muse at length about the role that race could play in the general election -- the issue that some of his former black allies angrily accused him of introducing in the Democratic primaries -- as a factor, if not a decisive one. "

so maybe he thinks this will redeem him for his failure

I believe his flashes of anger and ill chosen words reflect his true feelings. All of us have our own true feelings and beliefs, but most of us have learned to control our tongues and actions and not reveal everything we think and feel. That is one of the biggest differences between adults and children.

I get more and more disgusted with him. Another week, another outrage.

What's next, I wonder? Shilling for the Red Cross?

I've been peeved with Clinton myself many times over the years (pre-Obama), though I continue to be grateful for the eight years of prosperity he gave me. I think it's good to keep him out of the campaign. Obama's got to establish his own identity and move forward.

However, Bill'll be back. He always is. Have no idea what role he will play, though. If any Clinton plays a role on the national stage in the near future, it should be Hillary, IMO.

I hate to say it, but he said aloud what I've been thinking all along: Can America really get beyond race? I hope it can -- I did support Obama over Hillary, though neither were my first choice -- but am unsure.

However, me thinking it and him saying it are two different things. He should have kept his mouth shut.

I cannot recall an instance since 1912 (Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party) where a former president will not endorse the nominee of his own party. A lot of people find this (and other) behavior to be very disturbing.

Is it November yet? No? There's plenty of time for the most popular living President to endorse Obama.

And you know when that will happen? When the Obama campaign fucking tells him to.

That's the way it fucking works.

Democrats love Bill. DU ain't the party in any measurable way.

Thank God.

NT!

It mentions the "grueling journey" across Africa--and then goes on to describe Clinton lounging in a suite with three aides looking on with a cigar in his hand, after having jaunted around by helicopter for a ground breaking ceremony.

And McAuliffe is with him? How is it that in the last three days I have gotten emails from both Bill Clinton and Terry McAuliffe asking me to donate to Hillary to pay off her "pesky campaign debt" (as Bill Clinton called it) and possibly win a dinner out with her?

They need it. It would be sad to see Bill on a soup line, possibly with a B-list cigar.

Oh the humanity.