Analysis: Bill Clinton's Lost Legacy

CBSNews.com's Vaughn Ververs: Inflammatory Remarks Tarnish Ex-President's Reputation

(CBS)  This analysis was written by CBSNews.com senior political editor Vaughn Ververs.

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The man crowned as America's first black president for his unprecedented personal connection to the African-American community has abdicated the throne.

By injecting himself into the Democratic primary campaign with a series of inflammatory and negative statements, Bill Clinton may have helped his wife's presidential hopes in the long term but at the cost of his reputation with a group of voters that have long been one of his strongest bases of political support.

Illinois Senator Barack Obama won an overwhelming victory in South Carolina with the support of African American voters who made up 53 percent of the vote, according to CBS News exit polls. Eighty percent of those voters chose Obama.

The rout came after weeks of racial polarization, much of it involving the former president, who thrust himself into the fray in a manner more reminiscent of backwoods Arkansas politicking than conduct befitting a former commander in chief.

Bill Clinton was once seen as a big asset for his wife's campaign, especially among Democrats. After the thrashing Hillary Clinton took in South Carolina, the former president may find himself in the doghouse, if not the bullpen.

It was one phrase that began the racial ball rolling. When Bill Clinton referred to Obama's claims of consistent opposition to the war in Iraq as "the biggest fairy tale that I have ever seen," many blacks heard more than policy criticism. They heard a dismissive attack on the first black with a real chance of winning the White House. They heard echoes of racial battles of the past. And they heard it from someone who was supposed to be on their side.

Bill Clinton has not been the only campaign surrogate to stoke the racial fires. References by at least two Clinton supporters about Obama's past drug use, including a comment from one of the wealthiest African-American businessmen in the country.

E-mails have surfaced, some traced to Clinton campaign volunteers in Iowa, claiming that Obama is a Muslim. Former Senator Bob Kerrey, on the day he announced his support for Clinton, made sure to make a point about how wonderful he thought it was that Obama's middle name is Hussein. A radio ad in South Carolina sought to portray Obama as a fan of Republican policies in the 1990s.

The candidate herself contributed to the furor when she intimated that while Martin Luther King Jr. was a wonderful leader, it took President Johnson to make the Civil Rights Act a reality.

But it has been Bill Clinton who carried the campaign's attacks in the wake of his wife's Iowa loss. The "fairy tale" comment was followed by the claim that he had personally witnessed attempts at suppressing votes (a topic that touches blacks on a personal level) in Nevada by Obama supporters. It was Bill Clinton left to carry the ball in South Carolina for most of last week, while the candidate was in Super Tuesday battlegrounds like California.

When confronted with the rhetoric, Clinton lashed out at the media - and his wife's opponents. "I never heard a word of public complaint when Mr. Obama said Hillary is not truthful about character," he told reporters last week. "When he put out a hit job on me at the same time he called Hillary the senator from Punjab. I never said a word."

South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, the highest ranking African American in Congress, publicly told Bill Clinton to "chill a little bit." Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, speaking with the former president just feet away, rebuked his language, insisting, "this is reality, not fantasy or fairy tales." The shots came from all corners. Writing on his own blog, Clinton's former Labor Secretary, Robert Reich accused Clinton of spearheading a "smear campaign against Obama."

South Carolina voters apparently agreed. The numbers are jarring: Fifty-eight percent said Bill Clinton's involvement was important to their decision and most of them voted for Obama. Seventy percent believed Hillary Clinton had unfairly attacked Obama. As a warning to Clinton, just 77 percent said they would be satisfied with her as the nominee.

"Not presidential" is how former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle described Bill Clinton's behavior on the campaign trail of late. All the same, it may be effective. Clinton's campaign is aimed at capturing voters who make up a huge part of the Democratic demographic: Middle class, white, female, older. Those are the voters who may shy away from backing a "black" candidate, as they have in earlier contests in this race. Despite his huge margin of victory, Obama captured just a quarter of white voters.

And the nasty tactics had another purpose - to knock the candidate of "hope" off the mountaintop and down into the gutters of hardball politics. Forcing the man who has sought to connect himself to the legacy of inspirational leaders of the nation's past (he announced his candidacy in the shadow of Abraham Lincoln) to trade blows and accusations with Bill Clinton on the divisive issue of race only serves to muddy both. And there's some evidence that it worked. Fifty-eight percent of South Carolina voters said they felt Obama unfairly attacked Clinton during the campaign.

Should Clinton win the nomination by marginalizing Obama as a black candidate, she may well end up in the White House. The sign outside should read: Still wanted, the first black president.

[ixoye_02]

Yawn....all these pundits really have nothing new to say. Much of what has transpired between Clinton and Obama and campaign remarks that supposedly tarnish Bill Clinton will go unremembered in the months to come. This is all about media high drama and sensationalism. I am more interested in the substance of what the candidates are proposing...not the rhetoric.

GOOD RIDDANCE TO THE CLINTONS'' POLITICS OF PERSONAL DESTRUCTION?, http://www.vote.com/magazine/columns/dickmorris/column60533426.phtml

[candide777]

If you were caught getting a b-job, under your desk at work, would you still have your job?
Posted by katg21 at 06:36 PM : Jan 28, 2008

Honestly, yes, I would still have my job because I made my company a sh*tload of money last year, and they frankly don''t care if I''m doin'' it with my mother under my desk. God bless capitalism!

[realpatriot1]

drivenithome,

LOL!!

[realpatriot1]

I''m not as concerned about who was blowing Bill in the oval office as I am about him blowing foreign agents in the Lincoln bedroom( speaking rhetorically of course, only Bush actually invites male prostitutes in after dark).

[katg21]

I say let him keep on talking, he''s making a complete fool of himself and his wife. Bravo Bill.

[katg21]

Bill Clinton''''s personal affairs are none of anybody else''''s concern but his. Posted by thebigleagu1

If you were caught getting a b-job, under your desk at work, would you still have your job?

[drivenithome]

What else could Bill Clinton do to help his wife when the Democratic Nomination...maybe show up to a NAACP meeting in BLACKFACE, and the next day blame the media for covering the story???

[marcodele]

I think he was a better president than either of the Bush oil guys, but he chose to make his legacy a DNA stain on a size 18 dress.

[klingon69]

Oh no, did somebody wash the blue dress?

[denn034]

His legacy is that of an adultering, lying, deceiver that doesn''t deserve a legacy. Keep it lost as far as I''m concerned.

[iffymens]

Just because Cbs said so does not make it so.I am black and l still adore the Clintons.

[otionwaves]

'' .. if the little gods say they want you to turn their school houses into dare houses and their neighborhoods into shock and awe campaigns, you know have to do it, though you know *** well they are going to turn around and tell you to turn their dare houses into anti-dare houses and their neighborhoods into anti- shock and awe campaigns, and all because they the spilling of their own baby blood and the breaking of their own baby bones makes them giggle and giggle and giggle .. ''

'' .. soldiers that wage wars live in the war torn helll of their own making, as do journalists that represent audiences without affording them any sustenance market share .. ''

[l00ker]

CBS does suffer from OBamania. If Obama says or does it, it is wonderful. If Hillary says the same it horrible.

Edward R must be spinning in his grave at the lack of objective standards of the current generation of CBS "reporters", pundits, and anchors.


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Posted by belker1 at 01:15 PM : Jan 28, 2008


Is there something amist of, out there in HillaryLand? Whining are we? Can''t get a break, can we?

[belker1-2009]

CBS does suffer from OBamania. If Obama says or does it, it is wonderful. If Hillary says the same it horrible.

Edward R must be spinning in his grave at the lack of objective standards of the current generation of CBS "reporters", pundits, and anchors.

[starleo146]

Posted by b-easy63 at 11:39 AM : Jan 28, 2008

It also depends on the media and what they say and how they take things out of context and say it as so. I truly believe the media did Bill Clinton and Obama a big injustice portraying Clinton as a racist in this election, they were just itching for a fight in S.C. and wanted race to come to play and so help me they should be held accountable for it but like Bush we will believe and brush it off. Take the comment the media said Bill Clinton said, "Well Jessie Jackson won in 84 and 88 as if to say only blacks can win in south Carolina but how that quote came about is a reporter asked Bill Clinton what are the history of South Carolina''s elections and Bill In his comment mentioned that Jessie won in 84 and 88, What did you see on tv did you see the reporter asking Bill about the History ?No they didn''t put that in just that small portion of the answer it is not right and they need to be held accountable just as every candidate is.

[terrorislam6]

hahaha

dummycrats getting played by a couple of barkansas hicks LOL

hahaha

[terrorislam6]

"Everybody in politics lies, but they [the Clintons] do it with such ease, it%u2019s troubling,%u201D Geffen said.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003548043

hahahaha people paying to read and listen to an admitted, proven, convicted, impeached, disbarred liar,,, lol
For Clinton, New Wealth In Speeches
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022202189.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/21/AR2007022100993_pf.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17263999/

Sales of Bill Clinton book drops
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071016/ap_on_el_pr/bill_clinton_book_1

[terrorislam6]

For nearly two decades, Yvette Wider, an African American, adored Bill Clinton, once described by a famous black novelist as the nation''s first black president.

But now, after Clinton''s "fairy tale" remark about Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in New Hampshire and a statement in South Carolina that Obama had put a political "hit job" on him, Wider said she feels she hardly knows the former president. "I was surprised to hear him make a comment like that, because I thought he understood our people better," said Wider, who said she will vote for Obama in Saturday''s South Carolina primary. "It made me think he''s been playing us all this time."

duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it is the vast kkklowntoon conspiracy

hahaha

are dummycrats dumb or what LOL

hahaha

[b-easy63]

CORRECTION:

f Clinton wants all the autonomy you thinks he should have as a husband-then HE NEEDS TO GO HOME, STOP CAMPAIGNING AND be JUST a husband and NOT our public servant, representing us to the world by his words, thoughts and deeds. SAME GOES FOR THE WOMAN--WE DON''T WANT THE WORLD TO THINK THEY CAN CHEAT ON US IN ANY DEALS--AND WE''LL JUST SHRUG IT OFF. DO WE?

Posted by b-easy63 at 11:48 AM : Jan 28, 2008