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How Barack Uses BillTurning Hillary Clinton's husband against her.

By John Dickerson
Posted Monday, March 24, 2008, at 6:26 PM ET
Bill Clinton. Click image to expand.

How much of a rhetorical genius is Bill Clinton? He could find wiggle room in the word is. He could issue stern denials about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky while looking straight into the camera. Sen. Bob Kerrey once described him as "an unusually good liar." Clinton is considered such a master of the art of political speech that during this campaign, his every remark is scrutinized for hidden agendas, motivations, and lucky lottery numbers.

He has been effective. When Clinton railed against the press for giving Obama kid-glove treatment, he got the message across in a way campaign aides hadn't achieved, despite months of jawboning the media. When Clinton brought up Jesse Jackson's 1988 campaign after Obama's South Carolina victory, he interjected a parallel that accentuated Obama's race and framed his victory as a black thing. This matched the argument Clinton aides were making behind the scenes that Obama won only because he had such big African-American support. Bill Clinton says he got a bum rap for drawing the Jackson parallel, but it is hard to imagine that a man with his skill, even if he wasn't trying a deliberate stratagem, would be ignorant to the effect his remarks would achieve.

But Clinton can't possibly be angling as much or as often as people give him credit. Like Karl Rove, the former president is inevitably assumed to be playing games he may not actually be trying to play. What's intent and what's reputation doesn't matter to Obama campaign aides, though. They have effectively used Clinton's reputation as a political master against his wife's campaign.

The latest attempt to turn Bill Clinton into an Obama surrogate comes after Clinton's talked last Friday in North Carolina about what a Hillary vs. McCain race might look like:

I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interests of this country. … [P]eople could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics.

Because Clinton is such an evil genius, the Obama campaign argued, his remarks could be interpreted only in the most politically diabolical way: By stressing McCain and Hillary's love of their country, he was suggesting Obama, whom he never mentioned, didn't love his country. One of Obama's top military advisers, Gen. Tony McPeak, promptly compared Clinton to Joe McCarthy. Maureen Dowd and Martin Peretz saw it this way, too.

Other observers saw even worse. "[Clinton] also, notably, pushed the race button there again," said a veteran Democratic strategist who supports Obama, referring to Clinton's talk about "all this other stuff.'' The "other stuff," goes this theory, is Obama's recent trouble with his former pastor Jeremiah Wright. The powerful message: If you don't want to have a debate about race all day long, vote for Clinton.

Is that the right interpretation? Bill Richardson, who last week came out in support of Obama, didn't think Clinton was making any claims about Obama's patriotism. Though Richardson may be tender after cries that he betrayed The Family, I agree with him that if you look at Clinton's full remarks, another interpretation is possible. Clinton appears to be imagining a post-nomination world and characterizing the debate among two senators (Hillary and McCain) as respectful because—as he had just finished explaining to the crowd—his wife and McCain had traveled the world together working on the issues like global warming. When he refers to "the other stuff that always seems to intrude," it's plausible to assume—if you strip him of the horns and pitchfork for just a moment—that what Clinton was talking about was the "stuff" that intrudes in general-election fights—swift-boat ads and Republican claims that Democrats aren't patriots.

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John Dickerson is Slate's chief political correspondent and author of On Her Trail. He can be reached at .
Photograph of Bill Clinton by Eric Thayer/Getty Images.
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