Ok...Let me get this straight. Hillary suspends her campaign on Saturday and loudly endorses Barack Obama for President. (Hats off to Hillary, by the way. It really was a great speech!) So it's now Tuesday morning and I got to thinking, what about former President Bill Clinton? Who is he supporting? Is he going to support Barack Obama as well? If so, is he going to mention it to anyone? You know, perhaps Bill Clinton mentioning publicly that he is endorsing the Democratic nominee would help the party come together...uh...you know...to win back the presidency in November. Just wonderin'.
I chose my headline, "Breaking: Bill Clinton endorses John McCain", because every day that goes by where our former Democratic president doesn't endorse the candidate of his party is another day that he's effectively endorsing the candidate of, well, some other party.
If Hillary meant what she said on Saturday (and I believe she did) then President Bill Clinton's support would also go a long way in rallying Hillary's supporters into supporting the party's nominee. If he is going to stand on the sidelines, what does that say to Hillary's supporters? To me, it says, "2012".
Last I read, Bill was heading back to NYC to get back to work on the Clinton Global Initiative -- http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org -- and give a speech at a corporate philanthropy event. This is from Ben Smith's Politico blog from early last week (June 3):
Moving back into what's become his comfort zone, Bill Clinton's speaking tomorrow in New York to the 2008 Corporate Philanthropy Summit, according to a release from the foundation.
http://www.politico.com/...
Now I'm not totally sure it's gonna really matter at the end of the day because Obama has obviously done very, very well up to this point. (Quick: name a big endorsement for Obama that happened BEFORE Iowa? Yeah, I didn't think you could.) So who knows if this would really help Obama at this point.
I guess the reason I am writing the diary is simply because it strikes me as a bit weird that Bill hasn't said anything yet. Does Obama have to negotiate something with him first? Does he need a prime speaking spot at the convention? Are you just so pissed at this point about Hillary not winning it that you need some time to cool off? Is the nomination going to be contested in Denver or something crazy like that? Is there something we don't know?
C'mon President Clinton, who are you supporting for President this year?