Sympathizing With the Right

Law Dude's last post reminds me of something that has been nagging at me lately, namely the fact that a lot of Obama supporting Democrats are finding an unlikely source of sympathy with Republicans of the Gingrich era. While Democrats were basking in the Clinton years -which, unfortunately, became but a political sorbet for two courses of Bush - the right took every opportunity to lambaste the Clinton camp's heavy-handed tactics. Dem reaction to this landed somewhere between willful ignorance and blissful tolerance. But the 2008 Dem primary season has flipped this on its head, and the growing corps of Obama Dems see the formerly heralded Clinton machine in a different light.

The closest thing to this, insofar as I can tell, is watching your favorite wide receiver get traded to a rival in your team's division. You loved his speed down the field, but now that he's on the other side of the ball, he insists on exploiting your team's slow secondary (sorry for the expanded sports analogy, I'll try to keep those to a minimum). Anyway, this is how a lot of folks feel about Bill Clinton right now. Invigorating the party for eight years and withstanding a pretty silly, politically motivated impeachment? Great! Taking on critical global development and public health issues post-White House as a senior statesman? Awesome! Aiming to stomp out the Obama flame? Hold on there, Slick Willie. (Remember when we used to call him that?)

In any event, it will be interesting to see how this affects the Clinton legacy in the long run. It's silly to opine on what that might look like before we even have an '08 Dem candidate, but at this point it's pretty clear that whoever the nominee ends up being, either Dem who wins in '08 has the potential to relegate the Bill Clinton presidency to a pretty short paragraph in high school history books. (Note: a potential HRC presidency's effect on the Bill Clinton "first gentlemanship" treatment in the history books notwithstanding.)

-Education Dude