Clinton insists he wants Obama to win

By JENNIFER EPSTEIN |

6/5/12 6:47 PM EDT

Former President Bill Clinton is "aghast" by chatter suggesting that he's hurting President Obama's reelection efforts with at times complimentary comments about Mitt Romney.
Responding to a question about a column by POLITICO's Roger Simon, Clinton said on NBC's "Nightly News" that "Mr. Simon may think I should be an employee of the campaign, but I'm not."
Simon wrote in a column published Tuesday that Clinton is "out of control" in his comments on the presidential race and "is pretty good at sabotaging Obama’s strategy."
"I'm trying to help the president win reelection because I think he's done a better job than most people know," Clinton added. "I think the health care bill is a step in the right direction, not the wrong direction."
Clinton said he's been surprised by the controversy his comments about Romney's business career have stirred up.
"I've been aghast by all this flutter about it," he said. "I don't think I should have to criticize Romney personally to disagree with his politics."

Kenneth Gary Edelstein ·

Here's what Bill Clinton actually said at a fundraiser for Obama in NYC on Monday when calling passionately for Obama's re-election: "The alternative would be, in my opinion, calamitous for our country and the world." Not exactly equivocal. Clinton has on numerous times praised Obama in no uncertain terms. But his consistent support for the administration hardly ever shows up on Politico and never is hyped in the fashion that a few oblique terms are paraded as evidence of some sort of rift.

Politico pushes that false meme in a back-handed way here. When a real-life character in this invented drama shoots it down, Politico places the word "aghast" in quotes (a practice that Strunk & White notes implies sarcasm) -- as if the denial proves that the myth Politico was peddling must be true.

 Yesterday at 8:44pm

Clinton breaks with Obama over Bush tax cuts

 By BYRON TAU |

6/5/12 5:15 PM EDT

Former President Bill Clinton broke sharply with President Obama over the Bush-era tax cuts, calling on Congress to renew them temporarily in the face of ongoing economic malaise.
"That's probably the best thing to do right now," Clinton said Tuesday in an interview with CNBC.
"But the Republicans don't want to do that unless he agrees to extend the tax cuts permanently, including for upper income people," Clinton said. "And I don't think the president should do that."
(Also on POLITICO: Clinton insists he wants Obama to win)
Clinton said that agreeing to a permanent extension would be a mistake, however.
"The real issue is not whether they should be extended for another few months. The real issue is whether the price the Republican House will put on that extension is the permanent extension of the tax cuts, which I think is an error," Clinton said.
Those tax cuts, enacted in two waves in 2001 and 2003, are set to expire early next year —  setting up a showdown between the Democrats and the Republicans, who differ over whether to extend them for upper earners. Democrats want them extended for everyone except the wealthy, while Republicans insist on across the board renewal.
Obama agreed to renew the tax cuts in 2010 in exchange for concessions from congressional Republicans — but has since made raising taxes on upper earners a major campaign theme. The issue will likely come to a head in either the lame duck session of Congress or during the new session of Congress in January.
" The fact that former President Clinton supports stopping all of the tax hikes scheduled for January 1 is very, very big news," Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, said.
"As you know, the Republicans are united on this issue and agree with the former President, and the House will have such a vote before the August recess.  Will Senate Democrats follow suit?  Will President Obama get off the campaign trail and lead on this issue, now that his predecessor has weighed in?  Inquiring minds want to know," Steel said.