Ezra Klein on Bill Clinton:
Bill Clinton's formidable political reputation is, in large part, the product of such speeches. And no one has seen Clinton give more speeches than the reporters who've covered him. Nightline's Terry Moran described Clinton as "the man often called the most gifted politician of his generation." The New York Times' Adam Nagourney echoed that description and added that "for anyone who has observed Bill Clinton over the past 20 years … his performance this year on his wife's behalf has been startling." That last part, at least, is true. Clinton has made some monumental miscalculations in this campaign, the worst of which was saying, about Obama's win in South Carolina, "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here." The dismissive comment cemented the shift in the African American vote toward Obama and may have helped doom Hillary Clinton's campaign. The political establishment has been so astonished at Clinton's missteps that some reporters, like Vanity Fair's Todd Purdum, have publicly wondered whether a form of post-cardiac surgery dementia has overwhelmed Clinton's faculties.
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--The Editors
