Debate Magazine

Trump Picks a Dangerous Tactic in Attacking Bill Clinton

Posted on the 07 January 2016 by Doggone
Trump picks a dangerous tactic in attacking Bill ClintonBill Clinton is an extremely popular former president, more popular than any recent past president and more popular than the current sitting president, Obama, and much more popular than any recent Republican president (either Bush), per insidegov.com.  President Bubba is generally regarded as the most popular president of the past 25 years.
THAT makes Bill Clinton a major threat to the potential success of Donald Trump, as a major asset to Hillary Clinton.  Since Bill cannot be elected to a third (or fourth) term as president, it is arguably the next best thing to elect him first spouse, putting him back in the White House in what would presumably be at the very least an advisory capacity. 
As a substantive thinker and accomplished speaker, aka the Explainer in Chief, Bill by simply existing, by doing 'that thing he does', underlines the failings and shortfalls of Trump in every important category, including appearing presidential, without ever acknowledging Trump by name.
It is a weakness on the part of the thrice-married Trump to go after either of the Clintons for any issue relating to marital infidelity, given his own egregiously bad track record in that regard.  While Trump's excuses for his infidelity has been that he was too busy with his work to be a good husband, it is a hard sell that he was busier, or had more obligations and responsibilities than the leader of the free world.  And Bill Clinton has survived his public womanizing scandals just fine -- and those scandals have NEVER translated into his being unsympathetic to the advancement of gender equality.
UNLIKE Donald Trump, Bill Clinton has never been accused of domestic violence towards his wife or any other woman.  And contrary to claims by Trump, Bill Clinton never 'lost' or was denied a license to practice law either.  But Trump and his conservative supporters don't value facts in the slightest.  They thrive on attitude over substance.
There is every possibility that attacking Bill Clinton to get to Hillary Clinton will backfire on 'the Donald', who is more of a cartoon character than a serious candidate.
The Chicago Tribune noted just today, in covering Bill Clinton:
The former president is the most resilient politician of this, and probably any, era. He seemed doomed when the sex scandal involving a White House intern erupted during his presidency. Republicans then foolishly tried to remove him from office for lying about sex. That backfired: Bill Clinton led his party to unusual gains in the 1998 midterm elections and left office in 2001 with a 66 percent approval rating.
Even right wing nut not-news, Newsmax, home of crackpot conspiracy theories and fact-free rubbish, noted that failing right wing extremist candidate and former Arkansas governor and purveyor of quack diabetes cure,  Mike Huckster-be, admits that Bill Clinton is extremely popular --- even among Republicans, a huge concession from the far right.
GOP candidate Mike Huckabee said Monday that he does not agree with critics who say Bill Clinton will be a liability for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, saying that even Republicans would pick the former president after seven years of President Barack Obama.
..."He's still popular with a lot of Americans. Frankly, after seven years of Obama, a lot of Republicans would take Bill Clinton back, warts and all, just because at least he understood how to govern. He was not the kind of person who utterly demonized the other side legislatively."
Meanwhile, Turnip-top Trump is broadly viewed as a huge - or 'YUGE' embarrassment, and never more so than while our closest ally, the UK, is debating banning Trump from visiting the country. The king of rubbish plans for border walls is being kept out - such poetic justice, such pure and unadulterated Karma. In spite of his inexplicable emotional rather than substantive appeal to Republicans, (because there IS NOTHING substantive about Trump) it is unlikely that he will succeed in attacks against either Hillary or Bill Clinton using this lame and extraordinarily hypocritical appeal.  I would expect that we will be seeing proxies for Clinton underlining this moral failing on the part of Turnip-top.

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