DUH! You're just figuring this out now? Better late than never, I suppose...

WTF is he talking about? I don't get it.

Sounds like undercutting to me. He's calling Obama candidate X, right? The guy he agrees with on everything but doesn't think can deliver. How is this anything OTHER than undercutting?

No need to wring your hands over Bill's disenchantment with Obama. America is fed up with Bill Clinton. He may be more helpful as the resentful, aging satyr grimacing at Obama from afar, than as an insincere booster. He represents the status quo and Crony Capitalism at its worst. Clinton's hostility is vivid proof that Obama represents real change.  

If Bush growled at McCain, it would help McCain. McCain may say he's not running for Bush's third term, but you wouldn't know that for all of the winks going back and forth between them.

Jason, come on; this is *obviously* meant to undercut Obama. It's a passive-aggressive swipe, of a piece with Clinton's pseudo-theoretical reflection while in Africa that "you could argue" no one is ready to be president.

Well, let's see. It's almost Labor Day. Obama picks Biden and loses a point or two in both Gallup and Rasmussen.

Now, it seems to me the Democrats don't have much interest in retaking the White House. They want to be liked, they want people to agree with them, they want the media to tell them they're right, blahblahblah, but they don't want to win. If they wanted to win, they wouldn't give a rat's ass about any of those issues; instead, they'd be reaming John McCain a new butthole, because that's the only way they will retake the White House, because that's the only way anyone ever retakes the White House.

Bill Clinton doesn't care one iota if Barack Obama wins or loses. Neither does Hillary. For that matter, neither do many of the people who support Barack Obama! All they care about is, do you like me? Do you like my guy? They're too hi-tone to get their hands dirty backing McCain into a corner. Might break a nail if they did. Perish the thought.

So, what's the purpose of this exercise? Just playing out the string, I guess.

It's like in baseball. Soon we'll be watching some of the guys from AA and AAA who aren't quite ready to be everyday major leaguers but could use some ABs against real big league pitching. So they'll be some exciting games when Cincinnati will beat Pittsburgh 4-2 or the A's will slip by the Mariners 3-2 and everyone will have a hot dog and a beer and it will be a nice sunny day at the yard to watch a bunch of minor leaguers give the veteran losers another day off.

I don't think that is undercutting nearly as much as a backhanded compliment; Clinton has implicitly declared that Candidate X has the right vision of the future, and explicitly declared that this candidate will need some help getting there.

Of course, the answer should be obvious for Clinton; give the guy a hand! If he's got the right idea, why don't you help him put it into play instead of going to half-assed route?

williamyard, it takes one to know one, and as I am one, I have the credentials here: you need to get some exercise and sleep and do something outside or something. You are reminding me also of my cat when she licked all of the fur off her stomach. Exercise and sleep. Also tasty nutritious food.

Mmmm...that's good stomach fur...

williamyard, are you subtly invoking Laraine Newman (if memory serves) saying, "mmmm... that's good chinch" from the Saturday Night Live "Chinch Ranch" commercial parody of the 1970s.  (The Chinch Ranch gave investors both skins and meat.)  Given that you seem to be, from your comments, "of a certain age," I thought it might just be possible.  As if the comment, even without such an allusion, weren't funny enough, and as if we ( I ) needed more reasons to idolize you.  To hell with Obama; YOU are The One.

say it bro

Jason, you are clearly in denial.

At what other candidate than Obama or what other situation could his "hypothetical" observation possibly have been aimed?

It doesn't take a helluva lot of "parsing" when someone lays out such an on the nose parable. to know what he's getting at.

fougasseu wrote, "...He may be more helpful as the resentful, aging satyr grimacing at Obama from afar, than as an insincere booster. He represents the status quo and Crony Capitalism at its worst. Clinton's hostility is vivid proof that Obama represents real change."

That's subtle thinking, foug, and there may be some validity to it for a segment of the population.

But, I'm afraid there are probably more people in the actively voting electorate who are something like Bill Clinton than there are young hipsters eager to vote for the change they imagine they believe in.  Whatever that is.

BillyYard, astute and droll as always.

Only, I would take the Clintons a little further.  They don't just not care if Obama wins.  They have good reasons to actively make sure he doesn't.

After Hillary has done the requisite niceties tonight, she will do her Lady Macbeth in the background and make damn sure Barry takes the fall.  Why, she's poisoning apples as we speak.