Clinton's Swap Sides

You ever wonder about the Clinton machine? I have always been amazed at their ability to re-invent themselves as the need arose. But I’ve seen something else for some time now. Bill and Hillary are changing roles, and they haven’t been all that subtle about it.

In the run up to Bill’s first term, Bill played the pragmatic, centrist, populist candidate, complete with the original “Sista Solja moment.” Hillary played the left wing ideologue. The firebrand. The nutcase. If there was a whacked out theory about what was going on, you could count on Hillary to drag it out. Despite the “pretty in pink” episode, (that was routinely ridiculed by right and left alike), they consistently played their roles. And did a fine job, I might add. Hillary tied up the whacko left, and Bill’s uncanny ability to find the exact geopolitical center (and make you believe that he thinks that way), to capture the “I don’t know what I believe” crowd also known as the “moderate/undecided vote.” This was the pattern through not only the campaign, but through both terms of office.

But that all changed when Hillary got in the senator’s office. Now she is the thoughtful, moderate, center seeking, pragmatic populist. Bill is the firebrand now. He has become as whacked out leftist as she ever was. So what to make of this?

For the Clinton’s career, people from all over the nation have been asking “Where is the soul of Bill Clinton?” Every presidency takes on a personality or theme. Except Clinton’s. There was never a theme that lasted more than a few months at a time. Where is Clinton’s legacy? The answer appears just to be the accumulation of power. Or as Rush Limbaugh has said: “It’s all about me!”

But I’m not so sure. Despite the socio-political extremes of Clinton’s efforts in office, the overall trend has been toward less freedom and a globalist agenda. One might even say that this shows a remarkable ability to subordinate his own beliefs to the ultimate goal. In a sense, this flip/flop of roles is not only understandable, but should have been predicatable.