Bill Clinton Bridges Growing Rift Between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton

On the same day that Sen. Barack Obama escalated his continuing feud with Sen. Hillary Clinton by launching a new waive of criticism entitled “judgment matters”, former President Bill Clinton began closing the divide.

Speaking to the Democratic Leadership Council in Nashville, Tennessee, Bill Clinton had the following to say about the fracas between his wife and Sen. Obama:

“I don’t want to get in the middle of that whole spat Hillary and Senator Obama had, but there’s more than one way to practice diplomacy,” Bill Clinton told a gathering of the Democratic Leadership Council.

He said all the major Democratic candidates had “a vigorous agreement on the big question, which is ‘Should we have more diplomacy?’ The answer is yes. Then you can parse their answers to the specific questions and decide who you think is right.”

“I’ve heard no fewer than four candidates in the last month remind us that in the middle of the Cold War, in the darkest hours, we never stopped talking to the Soviets at some level. So nobody disputes that. And we’re going to have to do that.”

This is classic Bill Clinton. Find the middle ground and run to it as quickly as possible. Politically, it’s obviously good for Hillary to have Bill Clinton out there reinforcing the notion that the Democrats are unified, while at the same time reminding folks that he doesn’t regard Hillary as “Bush-Cheney lite” and neither should they.

Of course, President Clinton also ouldn’t resist the urge to defend himself from Obama’s recent jabs at his administration during the 1990s:

“When people criticize the 1990s, they have to live in an evidence-free world.”

From a political perspective, it’s simply not possible for the former president to get too intertwined in Hillary’s public disagreements with other candidates. It’ll run the risk of undermining Hillary Clinton, while simultaneously reducing his own political capital. That said, it’s certainly helpful to have him out on the trail providing gentle reminders and subtle responses to attacks. Although, he can’t be an attack dog this time around, he’ll certainly be, as he has already proven, an effective buttress to the campaign.

[Photo Credit: New York Daily News]