Clinton Campaign’s Dilemma: What To Do With Bill?

[Purveyor]

By Philip Rucker May 10 at 4:32 PM

MARRAKESH, Morocco — The scene that unfolded here last week as Bill Clinton convened world leaders for a philanthropic conference was hardly what his wife’s champion-for-everyday-Americans campaign would have ordered up.

Gathered in Marrakesh for a Clinton Global Initiative confab, foreign oligarchs and corporate titans mingled amid palm trees, decorative pools and dazzling tiled courtyards with the former president and his traveling delegation of foundation donors — many of whom are also donors to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign.

When daughter Chelsea moderated a discussion on women’s empowerment, the only male panelist was Morocco’s richest person, Othman Benjelloun, whose BMCE Bank is a CGI sponsor. For the week’s biggest party, guests were chauffeured across the city to an opulent 56-room palace that boasts a private collection of Arabian horses, overlooks the snow-capped Atlas Mountains and serves a fine-dining menu of “biolight” cuisine.

Ahead of that event, Bill Clinton greeted Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal. “See you tonight, Turki,” he told his royal highness.

It was a long way from Hillary Clinton’s campaign-trail visits to Chipotle. The luxe week in Morocco highlighted the over­arching question facing the Clintons and their co­existing circles of political advisers: What to do with Bill?

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/for-the-clintons-a-big-question-what-to-do-with-bill/2015/05/10/1f5b6212-f4db-11e4-bcc4-e8141e5eb0c9_story.html

[NYC_SKP]

1. I would like to read that he and his wife have retired, withdrawn entirely from the public scene.

Last edited Sun May 10, 2015, 09:46 PM - Edit history (1)

In a time of world starvation and global warming, they're in jets and lavish hotels and palaces.

I find them both trite and bothersome.

[AtomicKitten]

3. + a gazillion

[pnwmom]

2. What's wrong with him calling the Prince by his first name? The prince probably calls him Bill. n/t

[Rosa Luxemburg]

4. Bill will be a great asset

[murielm99]

5. Indeed he will be.

He still has rock-star popularity.

I look forward to seeing him campaign for and with Hillary.

[BlueMTexpat]

6. Bill is not a problem

for Hillary's campaign, IMO. Anyone who actually believes so is really stretching.

Most candidates for US President would love to have such "problems" ... LOL

[JoePhilly]

7. Big Dawg is very popular so they only problem will be you can't have him go everywhere ...

... that you probably would like to use him.

The idea that he's a liability is pretty silly.

[whatthehey]

8. Utter FUD tosh

Lemme see. What should a candidate do with unlimited access to the most compelling natural political orator of the last couple generations? A man who to this day can take over a living room or a stadium equally easily and have them eating out of his hand within minutes? Someone pasty white from a redneck background whom a black Nobel laureate writer named the First Black President? A former president who currently carries a +30 approval differential and whose term is renowned for economic growth, a balanced budget, frictional unemployment and relative peace?

Well jeez I'm no Karl Rove level strategist I admit but off the top of my head, you might want to sort of... I don't know.... send him out to advocate for you, maybe?

[DFW]

10. For starters.

She had better not try to speak after him at too many joint events, though.

Bill Clinton is still a mesmerizing public speaker. He has rock star charisma the moment he walks into a room, and I speak from multiple first hand experiences. His spouse is not like that, even though she is a very warm and genuine person in a small group. That's not her fault, it's just their genetic makeup.

My brother is ten times smarter than I am. That's not my fault, either, but it's true nonetheless.

[Sunlei]

9. Their family Clinton Foundation work along with their daughter if Mrs. Clinton is elected president.

They have many large projects ongoing.

Most recent is the 98% graduation rate of their Foundation supported High School students and 94% of those grads are now entering colleges.