The biggest concern of the current administration is whether or not they’ll be able to serve a second term, but maybe Bill Clinton’s doing some longer range planning on behalf of Hillary:

Presidents should be allowed to serve more than two terms in office, Bill Clinton said Tuesday, adding that such a change wouldn’t apply to him.

“People are living longer, people are developing greater capacities, so I’ve always thought that should be the rule, not to affect me or anyone that’s served, but going forward,” Clinton said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

For the children…

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Who’s up for a trip back to the 90′s? Earlier in the week, Newt Gingrich offered an updated Contract with America for the 21st Century, and now Bill Clinton’s jumping into the time machine to try and reel in extra credit for 15 year old legislation.

The normally extremely humble former president briefly shed his cloak of modesty yesterday and expressed frustration at an those who refuse to offer him full plaudits for welfare reform and the balanced budget:

“I go crazy every time I read the conventional wisdom,” he said Friday night at his presidential library in Little Rock, Ark. “So part of the Republican narrative is that I was ‘saved’ from myself by the election of the Republican Congress [in 1994] that ‘forced me’ to do welfare reform and ‘made the balanced budget possible.’”

Clinton said reporters and commentators “keep saying this, overlooking all relevant facts.”

The 42nd president said Arkansas had been a test case for reform during his governorship. At the federal level, he said 43 states received federal waivers to implement welfare reform before the GOP-controlled House passed the final bill.

“And yet I kept reading how this was ‘a Republican idea,’ just because President Reagan had a good story about a welfare queen and a Cadillac who didn’t exist,” Clinton said.

Is Clinton still ticked because of the time then-candidate Obama said he wasn’t a transformational president?

If memory serves, Clinton made welfare reform part of his ’92 campaign, but subsequently vetoed two welfare reform bills. Then, in an election year, he signed a third version which contained some changes in order to bring enough Democrats on board. At that point, an intern delivered a pizza and he got impeached for perjury — though I may be fuzzy on one or two of the above details.

Look for select members of the MSM to dutifully run with Bubba’s plea for more credit, especially at a time when Clinton nostalgia among Democrats is at an all time high now that Hope & Change is in a tailspin.

If Bill’s feeling under-appreciated I hope he knows all he’s got to do is schedule another interview with Matt Lauer.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Is this an honest change of heart from the President of the World, or do Bill and Hill have 2012 in their sights and are starting to do more cold and calculated angling than Babe Winkelman at the Tip-Up Town festival?

From Politico:

Former President Bill Clinton said Friday that delays in offshore oil and gas drilling permits are “ridiculous” at a time when the economy is still rebuilding, according to attendees at the IHS CERAWeek conference.

Clinton spoke on a panel with former President George W. Bush that was closed to the media. Video of their moderated talk with IHS CERA Chairman Daniel Yergin was also prohibited.

But according to multiple people in the room, Clinton, surprisingly, agreed with Bush on many oil and gas issues, including criticism of delays in permitting offshore since last year’s Gulf of Mexico spill.

Thirteen years ago, as president, Bill Clinton wasn’t exactly drill-happy in the crude oil extraction sense of the term.

Whatever Clinton’s motive for saying that delaying drilling permits is ridiculous, he might have just cost himself a chance to again serve as president-for-a-day in the current administration.

(h/t Free Republic and Ed Morrissey)

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

How did Richard Dreyfuss end up not being involved in this?

Former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush will serve as honorary chairmen of a new center at the University of Arizona that will focus on civility in political debate, university officials will announce Monday.

The National Institute for Civil Discourse – a nonpartisan center for debate, research, education and policy about civility in public discourse – will open Monday in Tucson. It was created in the aftermath of the Jan. 8 shootings in the city where six people were killed and 13 injured, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).
[...]
Clinton said in a statement that the new institute “can elevate the tone of dialogue in our country.”

It seems like the more they claim to want to “elevate the tone of dialog” the worse it gets, doesn’t it?

Tom Daschle is also involved in this and will on occasion deliver speeches on civility — the thinking being that you won’t find more civil people than those who are sleeping during a Tom Daschle speech.

Kevin Williamson at NRO sums up the farce of Bill Clinton’s involvement:

What’s so civil about the red-faced, rage-filled Bill Clinton? The guy tried to blame Oklahoma City on Rush Limbaugh. Using both the bully pulpit and his proxies, he constantly implied that his critics were either racists, sexual deviants, corrupt, or all three. His minions brought us such gems of civil discourse as: “Drag a $100 bill through a trailer park, and you never know what you’ll find.” Clinton had the gall to subsequently tout his own “moral fiber” while denouncing his critics as “sleazy,” telling Peter Jennings: “You never had to live in a time when people you knew and cared about were being indicted, carted off to jail, bankrupted, ruined, because they were Democrats and because they would not lie. So, I think we showed a lot of moral fiber to stand up to that.”

Of course, they were lying. Lying — wagging one’s finger and flat-out lying – also is not traditionally considered part of civil discourse.

As Bill might say, “it depends on what your definition of ‘civil’ is…”

How exactly would a debate on civility go, anyway? A prediction:

Debater 1: “You go first…”

Debater 2: “I’d really appreciate it if you started…”

Debater 1: “That would be presumptuous of me, so you begin.”

Debater 2: “By all means, you begin, I insist.”

Debater 1: “You shouldn’t insist, that’s uncivil.”

Debater 2: “Sorry — will you please go first…”

Debater 1: “That’s a better tone, but I’d still like you to go first so I can improve upon your ideas…”

Debater 2: “Now you’re just being condescending.”

Debater 1: “Hey a$@*le, being polite isn’t condescending.”

Debater 2: “You’re not being polite, di*#weed, you’re trampling on my right to defer and using an uncivil tone to do so, just like Hitler!”

Debater 1: “Wanna take this outside, you piece of…”

Moderator: “…Thank you, civility debaters, but we’re out of time this evening.”

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

And no, it’s not the one that probably popped into your head first. The thrill up Chris Matthews’ leg has developed a wandering eye:

With a script and a dramatic voice over befitting a trailer for the latest superhero movie out of Hollywood, one of the first promos for Chris Matthews’ documentary on Bill Clinton has begun airing on MSNBC. The ad begins with an announcer teasing viewers, “His presidency was over, his mission just beginning” and then goes on to tell the story of a post-presidential Clinton achieving universal adulation complete with shots of adoring crowds and accolades from the likes of Tony Blair and of course Matthews, who shrieks like a fan boy: “You’re like a one man Peace Corps!”

Even the Academy Award winning actor Kevin Spacey shows up, narrating a scene he was once witness to: “And they were yelling ‘Peacemaker! Peacemaker!’”

Wasn’t President Obama supposed to be “all of the above”? How quickly they lose faith.

MSNBC’s going for the world record for fawning currently co-held by the producers of Bambi and Diane Sawyer’s coverage of Obama’s inauguration.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

President Obama met with Bill Clinton on Friday. Clinton agreed to publicly back Obama on the tax/unemployment extension agreement with Republicans. Obama then brought Slick out before a hastily assembled press corps, and then left Clinton alone with them to work his Bubba magic:

In terms of Washington political drama, Friday was an instant classic.

President Obama ushered former President Bill Clinton to the White House briefing room late Friday for an impromptu press session, then abruptly left the wonky and winsome Arkansan at the podium by himself to defend the Obama administration’s tax deal.

“I’ve been keeping the first lady waiting for about half an hour, so I’m going to take off,” Obama said.

Clinton chuckled, joking, “I don’t want to make her mad. Please go,” and then quickly turned back to the microphone and began taking questions from the White House press corps, which had been given no advance notice of the two presidents’ trip to the briefing room.

The press corps will now report back to Obama’s very disenchanted left-wing base and the rest of those who are contributing to Obama’s perpetually foundering poll numbers of how it reminded everybody in the room of a happier, more competent time — and somebody on Team Obama thought this was good idea?

A few minutes in, President Obama excused himself because he had to “get to a Christmas party.” Clinton barely batted an eye while continuing to take questions for another half-hour under the “White House” backdrop, leaving onlookers with a palpable “let the adults take over now, Barry” feeling:

After the 2008 media deification of Barack Obama, that was like watching somebody who was billed as Zeus getting into a fight and responding by hiding behind his dad.

Why would Obama leave Clinton alone with the press corps under these conditions? A bigger mistake hasn’t been made since Eddie Fisher agreed to let Elizabeth Taylor share a makeup trailer with Richard Burton on the set of Cleopatra.

I always thought a “Hillary 2012″ challenge was a real possibility — I just didn’t think Obama would help usher it in so agreeably.

Update: Bill Clinton was against the Bush tax cuts before he was for them.

From Clinton’s speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention:

At home, the president and the Republican Congress have made equally fateful choices, which they also deeply believe in.

For the first time when America was in a war footing in our whole history, they gave two huge tax cuts, nearly half of which went to the top 1 percent of us.

Now, I’m in that group for the first time in my life.

And you might remember that when I was in office, on occasion, the Republicans were kind of mean to me.

But as soon as I got out and made money, I became part of the most important group in the world to them. It was amazing. I never thought I’d be so well cared for by the president and the Republicans in Congress. I almost sent them a thank you note for my tax cuts until I realized that the rest of you were paying the bill for it. And then I thought better of it.

Until yesterday.

Update II: This 2008 piece from Iowahawk still holds up:

WASHINGTON DC – Ending weeks of speculation and rumors, President-Elect Barack Obama today named Bill Clinton to join his incoming administration as President of the United States, where he will head the federal government’s executive branch.

The rest here.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Presidents Obama and Clinton lobbied FIFA hard, as did Eric Holder, who traveled to Switzerland to help sell the US as the location for the World Cup (it’s not like the Attorney General has anything better to worry about).

That’s a lot of political fire-power and enormously respected global prestige (just ask them). Did it work?

Nope:

America has lost out in its bid to host the 2022 World Cup finals.

The Go USA bid was pipped to the post by Qatar, who beat competition from Australia, South Korea and Japan as it netted the award to host nation for the forthcoming soccer event.

The Arab nation were the hot favourites to win the right to host the event, having ploughed millions into their campaign.

The FIFA committee ignored the fact that the country has practically none of the stadia or infrastructure required, which the USA already has in place.

Reverse Midas Touch confirmed yet again. Obama should be happy though because of the “Muslim outreach” angle of FIFA’s history-making decision.

US taxpayers took it in the shorts to the tune of well over a million dollars when the President and First Lady went to Copenhagen to lobby to have the 2016 Olympic Games in Chicago. No telling yet what the cost of this failed World Cup bid will end up being.

Next time Obama should take a lesson from Vladimir Putin, who refused to make a pitch to FIFA for his country to host the 2018 World Cup. So naturally, Russia was chosen.

Update: Obama says FIFA made “the wrong decision.” He still hasn’t said a thing about Wikileaks though, as far as I know.

Update II: Martin Rogers at Yahoo! Sports stumbles upon an irony thicket:

Why Qatar?

At best, the FIFA executive committee voters were whimsical enough to be sold on a dream that has little footing in reality. The sales pitch was one of gleaming, futuristic stadiums, a foothold in the uncharted soccer waters of the Middle East and the chance for FIFA to blaze a trail by embracing a fast-emerging economic power.

Sound like a somewhat familiar strategy? If Obama should be angry at anything, it’s that Qatar infringed on the copyright of the Hope & Change sales pitch, circa 2008.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

If you’re in a bookstore this weekend and hear alleged adults giggling like a Code Pink party when the cake finally arrives, it’s just these clowns re-arranging the shelves:

The special relationship is being turned on its head, with US peace activists following the lead of their British counterparts to launch a campaign to reshelve George Bush’s new memoir, Decision Points, “where it belongs”: in the crime section of their local bookshops.

Inspired by a British campaign which saw Tony Blair’s autobiography, A Journey, appearing under crime, horror and even fantasy in UK bookshops, the protest blog Waging Nonviolence is urging its supporters to “Move Bush’s Book Where It Belongs”, and post pictures of the autobiography in its new location on a campaign Facebook page.

According to the campaign organiser Jasmine Faustino, Bush’s memoir “defends several of the criminal policies that he implemented during his time in office, including the invasion of Iraq and the use of waterboarding”. She calls on readers to “reshelve the book to where it really belongs”, and “take a picture of your ‘mission accomplished’”.

There’s actually the occasional funny comment on their Facebook page about how this has prompted some people to give the book a read.

The bookstore-bound BDS left might as well put Bill Clinton’s book in the “traitor” section while they’re in the store, because Clinton said Bush’s book was “well written and interesting.”

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

The “enthusiasm gap” remains as gappy as ever less than 48 hours before voting begins:

CLEVELAND — The arena where President Obama and Vice President Biden are making their final appeal to Democrats to get out and vote in Tuesday’s midterm elections was far from capacity Sunday afternoon.

The crowd estimate stands at 8,000 in the arena that seats just over 13,000 and a couple thousand empty seats are visible above the stage where Obama and Biden rallied supporters on stage.

The event is the final one in a series of “Moving America Forward” rallies aimed at ginning up enthusiasm with the party’s largely deflated base ahead of Tuesday.

And that 8,000 “crowd estimate” comes from the DNC, so you know it includes area meter maids, janitorial staff and cockroaches.

The New York Times noticed the enthusiasm gap as well, but relayed the DNC spin:

Organizers noted the president was competing on a Sunday afternoon with church, football and Halloween.

Remember when you could pretty much experience all three at an Obama rally? Times have changed.

I don’t know where the other few thousand people were, except to say they weren’t at Bill Clinton’s stop in Columbus:

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

It’s certainly not a good sign, at least for 20-point-down governor wannabe Virg Bernero here in Michigan, when you have a rally in a high school gym featuring a former president in a city that allegedly loves him — a week before a major election — and the turnout is horrendous:

While the crowd hoisted signs that stated “Virg Surge,” the turnout at the rally was anemic. More than 500 people came to the rally, but the gym at Renaissance High School was only about one-third full, even though Clinton used to command full houses wherever he went, especially in Detroit.

Politician after politician exhorted the crowd to not let the polls keep them from voting on Nov. 2.

Now remember, we’re talking about a city that can sell out Detroit Lions games, so this is a bad turnout.

The Dems should have brought the motivational excellence of Jamie Foxx into town, because clearly too many people are exhausted from defending Obama:

Another view:

After the Bernero rally, Clinton spoke at a rally for super-liberal Detroit dinosaur John Dingell and talked about things that make him gag (feel free to write your own joke). I don’t know about you, but somebody who’s been in Congress for 55 years is what makes me gag.

(h/t Gateway Pundit)

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

In the past couple of years there has been a concerted effort to destroy the theater. First an Obama stage horror called Hope: The Musical, and now an opera about Bill Clinton:

Everything sounds better when set to music, though on might argue that President Bill Clinton’s life story has been operatic even without the addition of music. Nevertheless, auditions for Billy Blythe are being held today in Little Rock Arkansas “a coming of age story set in the late 1950’s in Hot Springs.”

According to reports, the opera “will explain how the natural state helped shape and mold the man we now know as President Bill Clinton.”

I know it’s tempting to come up with alternative titles, like “Chokelahoma”; “William, (I’m Gonna) Tell”; “La Bloheme”; “Cigaro”; “A Midterm Night’s Dream” or “Phantom of the McDonalds,” but let’s keep it classy and avoid such a temptation.

Insiders tell me that the aria featuring Clinton’s character lamenting his prediction that the public would embrace Obamacare is even more moving than the overture to Billy Carter’s “Beerthoven.”

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Question: How many snickers, snorts, winks and nudges were there in the church when “pastor” Clinton got to the part about “forsaking all others”?

Place your bets:

Bill Clinton is not giving away his daughter Chelsea’s hand in marriage for another three weeks. But he is going to get a little practice at the altar on Saturday, when he officiates at the wedding of Representative Anthony D. Weiner and Huma Abedin, a longtime aide to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The ceremony will be at Oheka Castle in Huntington, N.Y., in the early evening.

Matt McKenna, a Clinton spokesman, told The Associated Press that Mr. Clinton would conduct the ceremony and was authorized to do so, but did not elaborate. Aides to Mr. Weiner, who represents Queens and Brooklyn, declined to comment.

Feel free to write your own jokes.

In a somewhat related story, the Clintons are dealing for an $11 million Westchester mansion on 20 acres complete with five bedrooms, six bathrooms and hot & cold running mistresses:

Just over a week ago, Hillary was in “wealth spreading” mode again, saying this at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in Kyiv, Ukraine:

“So part of the challenge of economic growth and prosperity is to make sure it gets down and equally spread among people.”

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take a walk-through on an $11 million mansion I might buy. None for you… suckers!”

**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Speaking at Robert Byrd’s memorial service, in typical Bill Clinton style, Bubba didn’t run from the KKK past of the late West Virginia Senator, but rather with it. In the process, Clinton trivialized Byrd’s onetime membership in an organziation that lynched black people:

Former President Bill Clinton explained the late Sen. Robert Byrd’s (D-W.V.) membership in the Ku Klux Klan Friday by claiming Byrd was simply trying to get elected.

Speaking at Byrd’s funeral in Charleston today, Clinton seemed to criticize newspaper eulogies that dwelled on Byrd’s association with the Klan.

“They mention that he once had a fleeting association with the Ku Klux Klan, and what does that mean? I’ll tell you what it means,” Clinton said. “He was a country boy from the hills and hollows of West Virginia. He was trying to get elected. And maybe he did something he shouldn’t have done, and he spent the rest of his life making it up. And that’s what a good person does. There are no perfect people. There certainly are no perfect politicians.”

Maybe he did something he shouldn’t have? I don’t know about you, but “he wasn’t really a racist… he just pretended to be one because that’s how bad he wanted to be a politician” doesn’t seem like much of a compliment either.

“Fleeting association”? Byrd was an active member of the Klan for at least a year, joining in 1942, and wrote to the Klan’s Imperial Wizard in 1946, saying that the Klan was “needed today as never before.” Byrd fillibustered against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — 22 years after joining the Ku Klux Klan. And yet Clinton waved this all off as a fleeting youthful indescretion, as if Byrd stole somebody’s bike when he was 15.

Not only that, but Clinton seemed to actually be trying to portray Byrd as heroic for being able to overcome his past and go on to do “good works,” as if Byrd had been stricken with polio as a kid but later went on to win a gold medal in track like Wilma Rudolph (who the Klan would have been happy to lynch but fortunately couldn’t catch).

I realize it’s a memorial service and you don’t speak poorly about the person you’re eulogizing, but in Clinton’s haste to defend Robert Byrd, he insulted the intelligence of just about everybody else who cared to see through the BS (anybody who hasn’t sold their soul to the Democrat Party, that is), not to mention gave the back of his hand to all the people who were victims of Klan hatred (it’s almost as if Bill’s telling them, “Your sacrifices were not in vain because we got a good Senator out of it”):

As a side note, the bloom has fallen from the Hope rose, because Bill Clinton got far louder applause at the Byrd memorial than Barack Obama did. But maybe it was just in recognition of the real first black president.

**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

The big day is approaching! Hillary’s imparting important marital wisdom to her daughter (“if he cheats and you’ll lose power by leaving, stay”) and Bill’s auditioning bridesmaids as we speak. But there’s one thing that not many people know — when or where the wedding will be:

The wedding of former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton to investment banker Marc Mezvinsky is this summer’s ultimate status invitation. There will be only 400 names on the guest list, a good size for a wedding by ordinary standards, but barely big enough to accommodate the people who slept in the Lincoln Bedroom during Bill Clinton’s presidency [most of them didn't want to come all the way from China anyway - DP]. So planning it has been a diplomatic problem of the highest order. “Donors are expecting to be invited,” says a major Clinton fund-raiser. Then there are the campaign, State Department, and Clinton Foundation staff, plus foreign dignitaries and both Clinton and Obama White House officials. These complexities, say bride-side sources, are one reason why Chelsea has instituted a strict no-strangers policy: She must personally know every invitee. (Of course, it’s also a way of giving her parents an out for donors who don’t make the cut.)

The secrecy has seemed more reminiscent of a giant military operation than a wedding. Early speculation was that it would be held on Martha’s Vineyard, but more recently sources have confirmed that the nuptials will be held on July 31 in a still-secret location within a three-hour drive of New York City. “The wedding planner will contact each guest directly a week in advance and let them know where it is,” says the fund-raiser, who speculated that the Hamptons are out because the L.I.E. can be a very long road. The smart money, then, is somewhere upstate, possibly in Westchester or Dutchess County—most likely on property owned by a Clinton supporter. “You really see who their closest friends are in this list,” says an insider. “It’s not a celebrity-driven wedding.”

I certainly do hope Chelsea Clinton’s wedding ends up somewhere off the Long Island Expressway — there’s something that would be apropos about invites sent out by Bill and Hillary having “L.I.E.” printed right on them.

Hillary said she was more likely to give up the nuclear launch codes than the date and location of Chelsea’s wedding, but since Obama’s probably already done that, Hil will have to find a more effective comparison.

And naturally, if you’re at a Clinton gathering, you won’t be able to swing a dead cattle future without hitting a crook:

If Ed Mezvinsky, the disgraced father of Chelsea Clinton’s newly-announced fiancé Marc Mezvinsky, attends his own son’s wedding, he might want to consider ducking out before the reception. Mezvinsky was convicted in 2002 of bilking his associates, friends and family members — even his own late mother-in-law — out of millions of dollars. Despite being released in April 2008 after serving five years in prison, Mezvinsky remains on federal probation and still owes almost $9.4 million in restitution to his victims.

Duck out before the reception? And miss a huge networking opportunity like that? Unlikely. They might as well skip Mezvinsky though when they pass the “help retire Hillary’s campaign debt” collection plate just before cutting the cake.

Do you think they’ll ask Bill to donate the “something blue” for the wedding?

**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Tis the season for giving instead of receiving… for a change:

The problem for Bill and the Obama administration is that “job offer” might have saved its clothes in a closet and told a friend about it.

The White House is now hoping everybody believes that they were unaware Sestak would have been ineligible to take the unpaid advisory position Bill Clinton allegedly offered.

That seems like quite a lot of oversight for the most intelligent people in the history of the universe, doesn’t it?

Update: Wow, you know it’s a bad sign for Team Obama when Chris “the tingle has left the building” Matthews is complimenting Rush Limbaugh!

**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe