The problem with the most recent Bill Clinton remarks which have stirred controversy isn’t that they questioned Obama’s patriotism, because I don’t believe that’s what they did.
He’s out there campaigning for his wife. And the context of his remarks, it seems to me, was the larger context of campaigns in general, not a comparison between Hillary and her Democratic opponent. So when he says that a Clinton/McCain presidential race would be “two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country”, I think he’s simply trying to position her as an equal to McCain on the patriotism front.
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem with the remarks. The real problem is that they are yet another example of the Clinton campaign talking up John McCain’s credentials.
And in a media landscape in which the press refuses to call out McCain on not understanding (or, perhaps, lying about) the most basic facts about Iraq, preferring instead to excuse them as “gaffes” or “senior moments” or “mistakes” which “anyone could make”, the Clinton campaign needs to stop putting McCain on a pedestal.
Otherwise, the de facto conspiracy between the Clinton camp and the nation’s news media will leave us with President John McCain, no matter what kind of campaign the eventual Democratic nominee runs.
Addendum: It should go without saying, but won’t here, that there of course is another problem entirely with his suggestion that in a Clinton/McCain race “all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics” wouldn’t be an issue. That suggestion doesn’t pass the laugh test.
