HRC To WJC: Back Off

Per CBS News's Ryan Corsaro:,

Hillary Clinton is telling her husband to back off from making comments about her trip to Bosnia after he blundered several facts when defending the trip yesterday.

“Hillary called me and said ‘I misstated it, you misstated it.’" President Clinton said. “She’s right, I wasn’t there, I don’t remember the facts either.”
He said ultimately his wife told him, “you weren’t there, let me handle it,” to which Clinton says he replied, “yes, ma’am.”

Comments

What a strange relationship they have.

Posted by Craig | April 11, 2008 2:19 PM

This was a disaster the first time, and is a disaster the second time.

Do not want that drama in the WH again.

Posted by Arabella | April 11, 2008 2:22 PM

“you weren’t there, let me handle it,”

Was that Bill's line when the Monica issue came up?

Posted by D | April 11, 2008 2:34 PM

Gee. How clever.
Hillary lies.
Bill then lies in trying to explain her lies.
Hillary then tells Bill to be quiet, hoping we'll give her another couple of points for being "tough".

Yawn.

Posted by tinisoli | April 11, 2008 2:35 PM

Because she's done such a good job of controlling his impulses through the years...

Posted by Nate | April 11, 2008 2:39 PM

THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS!! FOR HILLARY!!!

Posted by Lloyd Webber | April 11, 2008 3:01 PM

Tell me why I should vote for these goofballs again?

Posted by Jake | April 11, 2008 3:02 PM

Hillary has been running an amazing campaign. Today's highlite is indicative of what her administration will be like on day one.

Posted by Mikelx | April 11, 2008 3:17 PM

Jake-- because they delivered the only extended period of peace and prosperity in my lifetime, and if you think that was just by luck and not due to them pushing through that budget deal you are deluding yourself.

Posted by Rusty | April 11, 2008 4:49 PM

When you have a political liability, you distance yourself from it. When you have a former president husband who firmly believes in free trade agreements -- and was the author of the current version of NAFTA -- you must distance yourself from him. When you have your highest campaign strategist working toward a free trade agreement (in the NAFTA mold) with Colombia, you must distance yourself from him -- get him to step down. When you have White House NAFTA strategy meetings you hosted, you must spin it to make the story sound like you actually weren't in step with NAFTA.

What is happening here?

Hillary and her husband have a long history of working for free trade agreements, and before this election cycle, the popular vote would have been for them. The problem is that since our economy has gone south, the public opinion of free trade agreements has spiralled into the abyss. In order to get the presidency, she must change her course publicly... disagree with her campaign and husband... show she is resolute in her support of workers and labor... get Penn to step down from his position (actually, it was only symbolic. he doesn't have the title but he's doing the same job for her campaign)... publicly reprimand Bill for anything... Show her individuality and strength!

The problem here is that she has a long history of working toward free trade (NAFTA) and against workers rights (her 6 years on the board of Walmart... while the company was in hot water in the media for busting unions and and foreign child labor. Clinton was at the very least silent.). As Sam Walton said of Hillary "Without any question you’ve added more to our board than any person we’ve ever had on that board.”

So, we find a savvy politician in Hillary... willing to first check the political winds. And now she has to say she has spots when her history says stripes... and her husband is 100% striped.

Posted by Kai_in_LA | April 11, 2008 5:18 PM

Hey Rusty, do you seriously believe that the relatively calm and prosperous 90s was due to a budget deal? How about the end of the Cold War, the rise of computers and the Internet? Bill Clinton had nothing to do with either of those epoch-shifting advancements in civilization, so while it did indeed take skill to be elected in 1992, that the "extended peace and prosperity" we enjoyed was during his presidency was in largely due to luck.

Posted by ditko hands | April 11, 2008 6:23 PM