Bill Clinton: Awesomely Awesome II

Bill, sent out to support Obama, blatantly undermines Obama. I get the feeling this interview was more fun for Bill than anything he's done since Denver.

ABC News' Jennifer Parker reports:

In an interview with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo, Clinton, who has tried to put to rest rumors of tensions between himself and Obama said, "I've never concealed my admiration and affection for Sen. McCain. I think he's a great man.

"But, I think, on the issues that matter to our future, the Obama-Biden team is, is more right," Clinton said of the Democratic ticket. "And I believe they're gonna win. But, I think that it will be competitive until the end."

A ringing endorsement it wasn't.

The former president said Obama "has offered some very specific and sensible economic reforms and healthcare reforms."

Clinton, who said he agreed with the US Federal Reserve decision to bailout insurance giant AIG, said his wife who today gave, "the most detailed position I've seen on what she felt we ought to do on the finance crisis."
[...]
"I think that the, the people said, 'Well, they [Republicans] had the Congress and the White House for six of the last eight years. We're in trouble. We liked Senator McCain. We recognize he's a little bit of a different kind of Republican. But, we're gonna make a change.' And I think that's where they'll be and I think that you'll see a victory for Obama and Biden," Clinton said.
[...]
"Barring some unforeseen development like in-- something happens in the debates we don't know about. I-- I-- I-- it may not be apparent in the polls until last week or two of the election. But, I believe that it will be apparent on election day. I think that-- I think Senator Obama will win this election," Clinton said.

Asked if he was surprised by the bounce McCain received in the polls after choosing Palin as his vice presidential candidate, Clinton said he wasn't, and lavished praise on the Alaska governor.

"No, she's a-- she's an instinctively effective candidate," he said, "And with a compelling story. I think it was exciting to some, that, that she was a woman. It was exciting that she was from Alaska. It was exciting that she's sort of like the person she is. And she grew up in a, came up in a political culture and a religious culture that is probably well to the right of the American center. But, she didn't basically define herself in those terms," Clinton said.

"She handled herself very well," he said, "I get why she's done so well. She, she's, it's a mistake to underestimate her. She's got good intuitive skills. They're significant."

Asked whether his wife intends to run in 2012 if McCain wins, Clinton did not rule it out.

"I don't know," he said, "You know the one thing we've learned at, at our age is that, you know, I hope we're both active till we're 90 and healthy. But, I think that her focus will now be on what she can do in her present positions to try to help her deal with all these things that threw her into the presidential race in the first place," he said.

Clinton added, "I think that-- that what she will do is to continue to try to be a national voice as a result of her campaign on economic and healthcare and energy issues that got her into this presidential race in the first place."

The former president suggested he and his wife have put aside "personal politics" and are working hard to elect Obama.

"She's workin'," he said of the New York senator. "You see her. She's out there workin' hard for Senator Obama. She, like me, believe he's gonna win. And no matter who wins, we've got to put our, our own personal politics aside for the next couple of years and get after these problems," he said.

Awesomely awesome and funny. I suddenly like Bill Clinton. You can't help but like anyone this underhanded. I caucused for Hillary. I visited Bill's Presidential Library. Bill and I have achieved detente.

Ed Morrissey:

Olbermann would have canned a contributor for saying anything this gracious or this accurate. Bill may be the only person on NBC’s cable shows to have called John McCain a “great man” in two years.

Bill Clinton: Awesomely Awesome I