Is Bill Clinton an effective ally... for Mitt Romney?
Romney has been talking up the former chief executive as a way to paint President Obama as a leftist Democratic outlier. Could the ploy backfire?
In an odd turn of events, "Mitt Romney has turned into Bill Clinton's biggest booster," says Reid J. Epstein at Politico. On the trail, Romney showers Clinton with lavish praise, contrasting the former president's declaration that "the era of Big Government is over" with President Obama's "old school" liberalism, and suggesting that Obama's supposed abandonment of "the Clinton doctrine" is due to "a personal beef with the Clintons." A perplexed E.J. Dionne points out at The Washington Post that taxes were higher under Clinton, Clinton pushed a much more liberal health-care plan than Obama's, and Romney trashed Clinton as recently as January. "Mitt Romney was against Bill Clinton before he was for him," Dionne says. Is embracing Clinton now a good campaign strategy?
The hug-Clinton strategy has big potential: Romney is brandishing Clinton as "a +5 Amulet of Centrism to assert moderate credentials without changing his policies or modifying his rhetoric," says Jamelle Bouie at The American Prospect. That's pretty clever, really. Making Clinton "an avatar for reasonable liberalism" lets Romney paint himself as "the Republican heir to Clinton's legacy of reform" — popular with working-class whites — while tagging Obama as "the GOP's analogue to George W. Bush," who's popular with nobody.
"Bill Clinton is the GOP's new favorite Democrat"
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
This will blow up in Romney's face: Sure, embracing Clinton "makes sense in a way," at least on paper, says Suzi Parker at The Washington Post, but in practice Romney's just "poking a sleeping bear." Clinton is out on the trail actively stumping for Obama, his wife works for the president, and as a Democrat's Democrat, "there is no way Bill Clinton is going to let a Republican presidential candidate use him to win votes." Now, thanks to Romney, Clinton has a bigger stage to wield his immense political talents against the GOP nominee.
"Mitt Romney playing with fire by summoning Bill Clinton"
Effective or not, Clinton's fair game: There's a fair amount of chutzpah in Romney's touting a president who he's previously campaigned against and whose policies he's publicly denounced, says Steve Kornacki at Salon. But this is politics, and using Clinton to paint Obama as a lefty is only as audacious as "Obama's own use of Ronald Reagan — the conservative president who raised taxes 11 times and denounced debt-ceiling brinkmanship — as a measuring stick for how far to the right this era's GOP has moved."
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Feds raid Diddy homes in alleged sex trafficking case
Speed Read Homeland Security raided the properties of hip hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Trump gets $289M break, first criminal trial date
Speed Read The former president's fraud bond has been reduced to $175 million from $464 million
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Today's political cartoons - March 26, 2024
Cartoons Tuesday's cartoons - the House GOP abandon ship, Joe Biden sets his stall, and more
By The Week US Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published
-
Henry Kissinger dies aged 100: a complicated legacy?
Talking Point Top US diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner remembered as both foreign policy genius and war criminal
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Last updated
-
Trump’s rhetoric: a shift to 'straight-up Nazi talk'
Why everyone's talking about Would-be president's sinister language is backed by an incendiary policy agenda, say commentators
By The Week UK Published
-
More covfefe: is the world ready for a second Donald Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question Republican's re-election would be a 'nightmare' scenario for Europe, Ukraine and the West
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Xi-Biden meeting: what's in it for both leaders?
Today's Big Question Two superpowers seek to stabilise relations amid global turmoil but core issues of security, trade and Taiwan remain
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Will North Korea take advantage of Israel-Hamas conflict?
Today's Big Question Pyongyang's ties with Russia are 'growing and dangerous' amid reports it sent weapons to Gaza
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published