Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Bill Clinton: Political Asset or PR Crisis Waiting to Happen?




Former President Bill Clinton maybe a huge asset for his wife’s campaign, since he remains extraordinarily popular among Democrats but has he become a PR Liability for Hillary?

Bill has been campaigning for his wife aggressively defending her record at all costs even if it meant bad mouthing her opponents. During the South Carolina Democratic Primaries Bill was accused of going way too far in criticizing Barack Obama, predicting he would win just because of his race and then likening him to Jesse Jackson after he did win.

His criticism of Obama caused uproar amongst the South Carolina population causing Hillary to lose. America also showed their contempt towards him, ABC’s The View said, “Keep it zipped Bill!” While Al Sharpton declared "Whether he thinks it's the press distorting him or not, his making these statements is polarizing the country".



Hillary’s public relations team quickly went into overdrive to clean up the PR crisis Bill caused. Through effective management they managed to blame the media for turning the presidential candidacy into a “race” issue.

To recant his previous statement, later Bill told reporters that he thought some of the comments were overblown or taken out of context but did not apologize. Later he issued this statement:

“She’s the best qualified person to be president I’ve ever had a chance to support, and I feel strongly about that and I think there’s nothing wrong with me saying that but what I learned from that whole dustup, and all the things people saying that I didn’t, is that as long as I’m promoting her no one can have an objection; but I can’t defend her. Someone else has to do that.”

Clinton continues campaigning for his wife but has toned down his comments in the face of the severe criticism from the American public.

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