The Democratic primary has been a long and grueling for Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. However, Obama was the one to recover from the political damage. Clinton was not as lucky as her campaign remained damage for many months. It was not only devastating to Hillary; it was devastating to her husband, former US President Bill Clinton.
This Democratic primary was very hard on the former US President. Bill Clinton was perceived to be a valuable ally to Hillary Clinton’s presidential hopes. But, Bill turned out to be a vulnerability that transformed into a politically life-threatening liability. To sum up everything, Bill’s participation did more harm than good. Bill’s participation played a vital role in Hillary not getting the Democratic nomination.
Recently, the thought of a co-presidency has not been well-received by many. Also, there were many that did not want to see a pattern. First there was the presidency of George H. W. Bush, then the presidency of Bill Clinton, and then the presidency of George W. Bush. Afterwards, there was the possibility of a presidency of Hillary Clinton with the return of Bill. Then there were talks in the past about former Florida Governor Jeb Bush running for president. Not many people seemed to like that pattern either.
Not only did Bill hurt Hillary’s chances, he had tarnished his reputation of a respected politician on a global level. His remarks towards Obama had caused Hillary to lose support amongst blacks, a core constituency of the Democratic Party. This had put Hillary between a rock and a hard place. Bill had become a rusted sword that had proved ineffective against Obama, who had better weapons and armor.
Even when the Clinton campaign had somewhat reached stability, Bill remained a liability. One action that Bill took that damaged himself and respect amongst the black community was implying that Obama lied about opposing the Iraq war from the start. Bill Clinton was also accused of trying to stir up Black-White racial tensions to steal white voters away from Obama.
This played a huge role in Obama winning the South Carolina primary. Also, Clinton had developed quite the mean streak on camera. He lashed at the media for the treatment of his wife’s candidacy.
At the end, Obama came out on top as the presumed Democratic nominee. It looked expected as presumed GOP Senator John McCain has prepared to accept Obama as the Democratic nominee. McCain had pulled no punches in starting off the general election season by launching attacks on Obama.
Hillary said that she will endorse Obama. But, where does Bill go from here? While many are speculation what Hillary will do next afterwards, Bill is a different story. The question is: What’s next on Bill’s agenda?