Opinion: Bill Clinton again stirs controversy

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Say this about Bill Clinton -- he may often have proved more of a burden than a blessing to his wife’s presidential bid, but his luck is holding steady.

A week and a half ago, with Hillary Clinton and her staff desperately wanting people to forget her discredited account of having come under sniper fire in Bosnia while she was first lady, her husband foolishly revisited the topic -- and misrepresented the way she had misrepresented it.

But this misstep by Bill Clinton quickly was overshadowed by the surfacing of Barack Obama’s comments about small-town America.

Similarly, the ex-president’s penchant for never, ever letting go of what he views as unfair criticism directed at him surfaced Monday during a radio interview about the flap he sparked on the day of the South Carolina contest. He says bluntly that, in his view, the Obama campaign ‘played the race card on me’ and then goes on at length to explain what he meant when he broached Jesse Jackson’s name in discussing the Palmetto State (listen below).

Clinton probably should have left well enough alone (especially since he’s caught on tape uttering an expletive, apparently to an aide, after he wrongly assumes he’s no longer on air). But he really exacerbated the situation today when he flat-out denied saying what he clearly HAD said.

But here’s where luck, again, comes in.

Had this occurred over the weekend, the resultant coverage might have ended up costing his wife a percentage point or two in today’s Pennsylvania primary by providing a reminder that he sometimes finds himself a stranger to the truth. As it is, on the day of the vote, his foulup should have little, if any, effect.

-- Don Frederick