Report: Angry Bill Clinton Rant Shocked California Delegates

Is former President Bill Clinton helping or hurting his wife Senator Hillary Clinton in her battle to become the 2008 Democratic Presidential nominee? The debate has often focused on some of the former President’s public pronouncements — but now there’s a report about an angry, red-faced Bill Clinton losing it while talking to California delegates:

The Bill Clinton who met privately with California’s superdelegates at last weekend’s state convention was a far cry from the congenial former president who afterward publicly urged fellow Democrats to “chill out” over the race between his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Barack Obama.

In fact, before his speech Clinton had one of his famous meltdowns Sunday, blasting away at former presidential contender Bill Richardson for having endorsed Obama, the media and the entire nomination process.

“It was one of the worst political meetings I have ever attended,” one superdelegate said.

This report is worth looking at it in detail, because it raises some issues — including one that Republicans could pick up on if Hillary Clinton gets the nomination: Senator Barack Obama’s controversial pastor could be a problem for him, but increasingly there will be some Americans who will not want Bill Clinton hanging around the Oval office again. Especially with reports like the San Francisco Chronicle’s.

Read on. It gets much worse:

According to those at the meeting, Clinton - who flew in from Chicago with bags under his eyes - was classic old Bill at first, charming and making small talk with the 15 or so delegates who gathered in a room behind the convention stage.

But as the group moved together for the perfunctory photo, Rachel Binah, a former Richardson delegate who now supports Hillary Clinton, told Bill how “sorry” she was to have heard former Clinton campaign manager James Carville call Richardson a “Judas” for backing Obama.

It was as if someone pulled the pin from a grenade.

“Five times to my face (Richardson) said that he would never do that,” a red-faced, finger-pointing Clinton erupted.

TRANSLATION: Carville insisted those were just his words but you can put two and two together and realize now that Carville was a formal or informal surrogate for Bill Clinton, who must have given him an earful. And Carville apparently took that perspective and threw it out there.

The former president then went on a tirade that ran from the media’s unfair treatment of Hillary to questions about the fairness of the votes in state caucuses that voted for Obama. It ended with him asking delegates to imagine what the reaction would be if Obama was trailing by just 1 percent and people were telling him to drop out.

“It was very, very intense,” said one attendee. “Not at all like the Bill of earlier campaigns.”

When he finally wound down, Bill was asked what message he wanted the delegates to take away from the meeting.

At that point, a much calmer Clinton outlined his message of party unity.

“It was kind of strange later when he took the stage and told everyone to ‘chill out,’ ” one delegate told us.

“We couldn’t help but think he was also talking to himself.”

When delegate Binah - still stunned from her encounter with Clinton - got home to Little River (Mendocino County) later in the day - there was a phone message waiting for her from State Party Chairman Art Torres, telling her the former president wanted him to apologize to her on his behalf for what happened.

Can this help Hillary Clinton?

Still, word of Clinton’s blast shot all the way back to the New Mexico state Capitol, where Richardson spokesman Pahl Shipley reiterated Tuesday that his boss had never “promised or guaranteed” Bill and Hillary his endorsement.

The bottom line: it isn’t an issue now but, yes, Hillary Clinton has a Bill Clinton problem and look for the Republicans to pick up on the slightest Bill Clinton slip or explosion and rally the party faithful together in a bid to try and stop the Clintons from running the Oval office again. For Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton is a political time-bomb waiting to happen.

Enough Democrats and independents are disgusted with the administration and GOP in general so this would not be enough to tilt the scales in a general election. But if Hillary Clinton wins the nomination in a controversial manner, some Democrats staying home plus a unified Republican party means (a) her election will be tougher than ever and (b) if she wins she will take office as one of the most instantly-polarizing American Presidents in history.

The saddest spectacle is what has happened to Bill Clinton.

Almost all Presidents leave office and the aura of the Presidency encases them so their reputations in many ways improve out of office (President Harry Truman, President Richard Nixon and, for his work in building houses etc, President Jimmy Carter). Some become ex-Presidents who are respected although their reputations don’t grow substantially (President Gerald Ford and President Lyndon Johnson).

But seldom in American history has a President left office and seemingly shrunk in stature – going from someone who has the aura of the Oval Office to becomings seemingly just one more political operative.

Increasingly, Bill Clinton is coming to resemble an angry “troll” that comments on weblogs. Rather than trying to win over, he is lashing out.

Can showing bitterness to Superdelegates convince them to tilt to Hillary Clinton when the time comes? (Please note our suggested solution to Hillary Clinton, in the photo above…)