Bill Clinton Cookie Baker?

It has been said that the marriage of Bill and Hillary Clinton has turned into a marriage of political convenience for each. Certainly during a very tough close and hard fought 1992 campaign when Clinton ran against the senior Bush Hillary was a tremendous asset for him. Hillary's rock solid confidence in her husband and unwavering defense of him as charges of infidelity surfaced won the admiration of many Americans and also won support for Bill Clinton in the election, allowing him narrowly defeat George H. W. Bush and assume the Presidency.

When the question of infidelity with Jennifer Flowers was raised during an interview on 60 Minutes Hillary fiercely defended her husband and questioned the truth in the charges stating that she believed her husband and doubted his accusers. When the interviewer hinted that as a wife she would say just that Hillary, red-faced and without hesitation said, "I'm not just a little Tammy Wynette Standing By her Man."

In the next nation wide poll Bill Clinton's favorable ratings rose significantly.

When in the same interview Hillary was asked what her role in the Whitehouse might be she smiled and said, "Well I can tell you this, I won't be in the kitchen baking cookies".

Later, when suggestions of Bill Clinton behaving inappropriately with an intern in the Whitehorse Hillary again hurried to husband's defense by appearing on the Today Show and attributing these accusations to a "Right Wing Conspiracy."....Of course we all know how that turned out.

This year it is Bill's turn to help his wife in her campaign for the Presidency. There is no question the former President badly wants his wife to be elected and he is working very hard to make that happen, but for some unknown reason the man known as a "Ultimate campaigner", the "Comeback Kid", the politician who could never be counted out of a political race....has failed miserably.

Beginning with his racially colored criticisms of Senator Obama in South Carolina in which he suggested that Obama was much like Jesse Jackson, popular, but with little appeal to "White Voters" ,the aggressive campaign tactics employed by the former President not only cost Hillary the victory in South Carolina, but is credited with beginning a downhill slide in which she lost the next 11 primaries.

In Ohio he announced that Hillary's campaign was "dead" unless the state voted for Hillary.

In New Hampshire he announced that Obama's Iraq policy was a "fairy tale" offending many African American voters who took the comment to be a racial slight.

In Charleston South Carolina he raged at the reporters present saying the media had distorted his remarks and that they (the media) favored Obama.

As a result of the above much of Hillary's campaign strategy deflated. Hillary and her advisors had hoped to split the Afro-American vote with Obama, but following what many Blacks considered insensitive remarks by Bill Clinton Afro-Americans abandoned the Clinton campaign in huge numbers, no doubt costing her what had been considered possible victories in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.

Whether it is the result of unintentional gaffes on the stump for Hillary or the lingering image in voters minds of an angry, red-faced Bill Clinton stabbing his finger in Chris Wallace's face the public which once admired Bill Clinton seem to have had enough of him. A recent poll shows poll shows a significant shift in his approval rating from a year ago. In March 2007, some 48% of those surveyed had a positive view of the former president, and 35% had a negative view. Now his negatives outpace his positives, 45% to 42%.

Senior advisors in Hillary's campaign (many of whom advised Bill Clinton) have suggested that Bill be put on ice as his involvement in the campaign is having a negative impact. What anonymous adviser remarked "he, Bill Clinton, still believes it's all about him....intentional or not he continues to push her into the background".

The above is supported by an incident during a recent stump speech by Bill Clinton campaigning for Hillary in which he severely criticized the Bush Economic policies, citing many mistakes and then proceeded to say, "When I am Elected President.this will change.." ....of course he meant when Hillary is elected, but....

Maybe it's time for Hillary to stop playing Tammy Wynette "Standing by Her Man".

Maybe it's time for Bill to return to the kitchen and bake cookies.

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