Proof that Bill Clinton Wasn't Insulting Obama On Friday (2004 speeches)

Bill Clinton said in June 2004 at the dedication of the official Clinton portraits:

I hope that I'll live long enough to see American politics return to vigorous debates where we argue who's right and wrong, not who's good and bad. My experience is, most the people I've known in this work are good people who love their country desperately.

Bill Clinton said about Bush and Kerry in July 2004 at the Democratic convention:

We Americans must choose for President -- we've got to choose for President between two strong men who both love their country, but who have very different world views...

Bill Clinton on Friday referred to his wife and John McCain as "two people who love this country."  Some have interpreted it an insult of Obama, since there are currently three big major party candidates.

However, Bill Clinton was expressing his longtime wish for a respectful general election campaign and not insulting Barack Obama.  He wants his wife to be nominated, and he wants for her to be treated respectfully afterwards.  He was asking for the latter in his quoted remarks on Friday.

Bill Clinton in 1992 had his patriotism questioned during the general election campaign, and he's since been wishing for a general election campaign which is instead based on the issues.

George H. W. Bush criticized Bill Clinton for organizing a teach-in at Oxford against the Vietnam War.  Others called Clinton a draft dodger, and tried to make a big deal about Clinton having visited the Soviet Union.

UPDATE:  This got started when reporter Carrie Dann of MSNBC was assigned the boring task of covering a stump speech.

She had the choice between telling her editor that nothing newsworthy happened, or weaving a tale about how Bill Clinton's stump speech "could be seen."  Apparently, she decided her editor would prefer the latter.

I heard Bill Clinton's stump speech in person a couple of years ago, and I recognized her quote of Bill Clinton as a theme of his stump speech.

Carrie Dann weaved a bogus tale which her editor Chuck Todd titled "READING BETWEEN BILL CLINTON LINES ABOUT OBAMA?" which suggests his lack of certainty about her interpretation.

Carrie Dann probably didn't realize what how big this story would get when she falsely portrayed Bill Clinton's stump speech as a big event containing an insult of Barack Obama.

Update 2:

Praising a candidate isn't implying that the opponent is the opposite.

Michelle Obama said on April 16, 2007:

And, so we are here today, asking you to support us, to join us, to turn those worries into action to give women hope that there is someone like Barack who is not only decent, trustworthy, compassionate, smart and hard working, but he is also someone who recognizes that society, our community, is only as strong as our women and our families.

Was she saying that the other Democratic candidates are the opposite of decent, trustworthy, etc.?

Of course not.

Nor was Bill Clinton saying that Barack Obama is unpatriotic.