Part III: Bill Clinton and the Betrayed Deal
Ed Klein's sources are people close to the Clintons and they portrayed for Blood Feud a former president who lives and breathes for the purpose of getting back into the White House. Since losing the 2008 Democratic primary to the Obamas, the Clintons have been furiously rebuilding their supremacy over their party. Hillary's mansion in New York and Bill's apartment above the presidential library in Little Rock have been the focus major fundraising, partying, and deal making - all for the purpose of wresting control of the Democratic party away from the Obama faction.
During Obama's first term, Bill's strategy was to overcome the mutual animosity with the Obamas by making Barack Obama beholden to the Clintons. It began in 2008 with Hillary rallying her partisans behind the Obama campaign following its triumph over her in the primaries. It continued with her accepting the cabinet job of secretary of state. It reached its peak when Bill Clinton agreed to help Barack Obama's re-election effort in 2012.
Bill Clinton was initially excited about Hillary's prospects as the in-coming secretary of state. He imagined she would be a shaper of foreign policy and that she would get big things done in the Middle East, with Russia, and elsewhere. The world's stage would be her arena to look presidential and she would build her resume for 2016. Bill expected to be called-on by President Obama to advise him on policy, much like George W. Bush did from time to time.
Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that the Obama team wanted nothing to do with Bill Clinton and allowed Hillary Clinton no freedom of action on foreign policy. She was expected to follow orders and (like the rest of the cabinet) was only invited to policy meetings to agree to policy decisions that had already been made by the president's shadow team (i.e. his Chicago advisers) in advance.
Bill Clinton flew into rants every time Obama was mentioned by his friends at Little Rock gatherings. He complained "I have no relationship with the president. Even George W. Bush use to call me up for advice."
Bill and Hillary were never invited to dine at the White House during Obama's first term. (The one and only time the Obamas asked them to come over for dinner was in 2013, and it was very unpleasant and awkward for both parties.)
Clinton always thought Obama was a catastrophe who was out of his depth as president of the United States. Clinton told friends that the president was an "amateur" who knows nothing about how to run the government. The best Clinton could hope-for was for the president to call on him for a big favor. He told Hillary, "I got to get this guy to owe me big."
Certainly - to forestall another left wing Democrat rebellion against the Clintons in 2016 - Bill thought it best to have Barack Obama in his corner. His first opportunity came in the fall of 2011. That summer, President Obama's poll numbers plummeted to the lowest of his presidency. (Slightly lower than they are now). His campaign team was in a panic over strategy. David Plouffe told him the only way to win in 2012 was to recruit the help of Bill Clinton. Valerie Jarrett was dead against it. She despised the Clintons and instead implored the president to reach out to Oprah Winfrey. Plouffe won out after Oprah - still sore from her own wounds dealt by the Obamas - refused to help.
Begrudgingly, Obama invited Bill Clinton to a game of golf at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. There, he said to the former president, "I want you to campaign for me in 2012." Bill told Hillary, "Now I've got him!"
Bill Clinton thought he had a deal that Barack Obama would back Hillary in 2016 if Bill got Barack re-elected in 2012. Klein has several chapters leading up to the dramatic moment when Clinton delivered the crowning endorsement speech at the DNC on the second night of the convention. Obama received an immediate boost in the polls immediately afterward.
In building-up the tension of that moment, Klein claims the Romney team was gathering momentum in the polling across the summer of 2012. That's not the way this reader remembers it. The only time I recall Romney ever having a tie or a lead over President Obama was after the first debate - well after the conventions.
By all accounts, Clinton's endorsement helped Obama's re-election. In the mind of the forty-second president - of course - it made all the difference. After the election, Bill Clinton received the cold shoulder for his work. President Obama ignored his calls and gave Clinton no public thanks (just a private call thanking him on election night.) Then one night, Obama finally returned Clinton's call and told him he was keeping his "options open for 2016." Clinton was so infuriated he hung up the phone on the president of the United States.
As 2012 rolled into 2013, Bill Clinton went from wooing Barack Obama behind Hillary 2016 to threatening his second term agenda unless the president made good on the "deal". This was made clear when Bill sent his aide, Doug Band and a few others to the White House to convey the threat. After the administration had tried to hang Benghazi on Hillary, it was open season as far as Bill was concerned.
Consequently, 2013 saw the Obamas throwing a few half-hearted tokens the Clintons' way. The president was featured with Hillary on 60 Minutes in which he praised her service as secretary of state. He invited her to a private luncheon at the White House. Then, he finally had the Clintons over for dinner. In all these small gestures, the president offered them nothing in the way of support for 2016. Bill Clinton was convinced the president had no intention of backing Hillary or relinquishing his control over the DNC in the run-up to the next election.
Ed Klein tells us Bill Clinton is in the process of making good on his threat to wreck Obama's second term and pave the way to a Clinton victory in 2016. After the Affordable Care Act went into affect and millions of individually insured Americans lost their healthcare plan in contradiction to the president's promise to the contrary, Bill Clinton didn't let Obama off the hook. He came out to the press and said, "The president should honor the commitment he made to the American people." When the president waffled over the "red line" over chemical weapons in Syria, Bill Clinton said Obama risked "looking like a wuss."
The most tangible way Bill Clinton has harmed Obama's second term has been by hiring his advisers away from him, thereby denying the White House its most effective demographers and statistics analysts. Klein names these top advisers in the book, and how Bill Clinton is snatching Obama's team away from him. Exasperated, Obama called up Hillary after Jim Messina switched allegiances. He asked Hillary if she would "rein-in Bill", saying "I can't lose these people." She told the president, "I can't rein-in Bill. Never could." And that was that.
Bill told Hillary that they will need to run against the Obama administration to win in the next election. He said, "The voters are turning against him and we will need to. We have to make it clear that this is going to be a third Clinton term, not a third Obama term."
Next, we will have a look at the supremacy of Michelle Obama and Valerie Jarrett in the shaping of the Obama presidency.
Patriot Thought
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