Big Dog Tricks, Part 2

Wednesday I offered three theories on what Big Dog Bill Clinton is up to with his comments on Romney’s Bain Capital record and keeping the Bush tax cuts, comments that depart from the Obama script.  (I note that Michael Duffy’s analysis on ricochet.com, linked in our “Picks” section, tracks closely with my Theory #3.)  Clinton has since walked back the comments in a manner that Charles Krauthammer described last night on Fox as “the word salad of a raving psychotic.”

“I’m very sorry about what happened,” Clinton confessed; “I thought something had to be done on the ‘fiscal cliff’ before the election. Apparently nothing has to be done until the first of the year.”  Apparently?  More curious language from someone who knows well how to redefine the meaning of the word “is.”  About the only thing missing was Clinton blinking his eyes in Morse code that his prison camp guards were watching him off camera.

Two additional theories that are complementary to mine come from Bill Kristol and Rush Limbaugh.  Kristol wrote the other day that Clinton may wish for Obama to lose so that Clinton will keep the World Democrat Heavyweight Title as the only Democrat elected to two terms since Franklin Roosevelt, especially as Obama keeps talking about wanting to change the dismal record of “the last 30 years” as though there was never an economically successful Clinton Administration in the middle of that period.   Plus, Clinton may think Romney might actually be a better president than Obama: Kristol said last night on Fox that we wouldn’t be surprised if Clinton, in the privacy of the voting booth, pulls the lever for Romney.  Here’s Bill:

Obama often disses Clinton, explaining that equality, family income, general well-being in America have suffered in the last three decades or so. Who was president during most of one of those decades, Clinton must think to himself as he grinds his teeth? In Obama’s recounting of recent American history, Clinton tends to be a hapless parenthesis between Reagan-Bush and Bush II. This account presumably doesn’t sit well with America’s 42nd president, and he’s therefore cheerfully doing his best to see to it that Mitt Romney becomes America’s 45th in November.

Limbaugh (sorry, no link found it: it’s here) said that Clinton might be setting up as air cover over the Left so that Obama can embrace a “compromise” in the next few weeks to extend the Bush tax cuts through the middle of next year.  There have been rumors around Washington for the last two or three weeks that Obama might propose this, and these rumors are starting to appear in the media.  This makes some sense: even if Obama is re-elected, a train wreck of a lame duck session that wrestles with “taxmageddon” and the debt ceiling would ensure that Obama gets off to a terrible second term.  Plus, it would take “taxmageddon” off the table as a major campaign issue this fall.  Should Romney endorse this deal if it is offered?  I say yes.

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