Bill's tantrum toward Chris Wallace: distraction?

Okay, so I go away from the computer for the weekend, and when I come back, everybloggy is talking about the interview Bill Clinton gave to Chris Wallace, in which Clinton suddenly went all foaming at the mouth and falling over backward.

Well, I can't say I'm surprised by former President Clinton's behavior before the cameras. I can't say I'm surprised by his reported conduct afterward. I can say I'm surprised that he still doesn't seem to get it: The world does not revolve around William Jefferson Clinton.

Or, maybe this isn't really just about Billyboy. It's very possible that this is a shrewd maneuver on the part of the family to provide a little sleight-of-hand, to put Bill's stupidity in the headlines, to allow the far left to pick up their flag of insanity and run with it in defense of the indefensible, meanwhile forgetting that Hillary continues to outwardly and overtly support the GWOT.

Hillary has still not kowtowed to the Deaniacs, the Kos Kids, the DUers demand that all members of the Democratic Party declare themselves truly and for all time opponenents of anything Bush says is necessary, regardless of whether or not that may fly with reality.

Hillary is still viewed by many on the left as a viable candidate for the 2008 presidency. A long as the flaming far-left "progressives" aren't reminded that she, too, thinks taking the war to the terrorists instead of waiting at home for the Death to come to us, then she may, still keep her name on the ballot. If they suddenly remember that she agrees with Bush on something, that will end it for her, in their eyes. They'll have to look for some other, less patriotic, ambitious nutcase to back, instead. Someone goofier than Howie Dean, and with all the oily charms of OOOOgo Chavez.

So, did Bill make himself the poster boy for spoiled behavior on purpose, as a deflection from Hillary, and, in effect, to try to save the party from implosion?

Or is WJC just plain self-absorbed and self-deluding?

Mom votes the latter.




Update> What a difference a day makes. Twenty-four little hours... okay, forty-six and change. But this post, you may note, isn't about what WJC did or didn't do while in office. It's about his conduct in front of the cameras just yesterday, and the questions which need to be raised for the future of this country.. and quite possibly the future of western civilization.

Update 2: Rick Moran, at Right Wing Nut House, says he views Clinton's behavior as a way of galvanizing the party's base... by going on the offensive against the mighty rightwing propaganda machine that is Fox News, killing two birds with one stone. He quotes Ann Althouse, who says -- more eloquently and more shrewdly than I --

I do think it’s likely that his latest public acts are a kind of strategic gamble, specifically directed at the left (rallying it for Hillary, who can then do what she needs to do to convince the center)—(and the left is eating it up aren’t they, he’s playing them like a piano)—- more likely than that this last outburst was an ‘accident’ (esp. when the questioning was so to be expected—he himself practically asked for it, in making such a big deal of the 9/11 movie).

(emphasis mine). So, Bill gets the Left to dance to his direction. Again. Somebody ought to do something about his finger-stabbing conducting of the Democratic Party orchestra. He's helping kill the Democrats, by not allowing them to find a real, rational 2008 presidential candidate, and by allowing them to pretend that they, as a party, have ever had even one serious thought about national security.