Clinton's popularity

Bill's, not Hillary's.

There is no doubt that Bill Clinton has a magnetic effect on people. But that's true of many politicians. The Washington press corps keeps telling me that Duhbya has it, too, though frankly their other work - and the obvious smirking disdain he feels for all of us - makes me very skeptical of that claim.

In any case, it has become an article of faith that Bill is popular and that his administration was popular. I don't remember it that way.

What I recall is that most everyone liked the boom times but didn't give him too much credit for them, a little but by no means most of it. For various reasons, most people viewed him positively, though even staunch Democrats had misgivings, and liberals like me could enumerate his many failings to go with his many, though relatively small, successes.

I think Bill got high popularity marks not so much because people liked him, really liked him, but because they saw what a royally screwed up raw deal he was getting from the VWRC. They knew he didn't deserve that, and they answered pollsters accordingly.

Don't we all do that to polls? Figure out what question they're really asking and answer it. So, for example, if they ask, "Do you approve of the job that Congress is doing?", are they asking, "Did Congress fulfill its appointed mission from the 2006 election?" If so, HELL NO! But if the pollster's asking, "Do you prefer having the Democrats in charge of Congress?", sure, o.k., yeah.

One large basis of Hillary's candidacy is the popularity of Bill. Sure enough, his administration was miles ahead of Duhbya's unbroken serial fuck-up. But is that enough to convince the voters? I'm not sure it's deep enough for that.

I saw a Hillary ad tonight, and she touted her 35 years of experience. That experience is real, but it comes entirely via partnership with Bill, and that makes it very difficult to assess separately from him.

If we're going to vote for a nonetheless Constitutional third Clinton term, and it's going to be a referendum on the first two, can the less gifted politician in the family actually deliver it? Against Mitt Romney, sure, but how about John McCain? Putting a natural bully in the White House, after Duhbya has shown how easily bullied the Congressional Democrats are, scares me.