June 4, 2012--"Sterling Career"

First Obama surrogate Cory Booker on Meet the Press blurted out that hearing President Obama talk critically about Bain Capital makes him "nauseous" and now Bill Clinton on the Piers Morgan Show does the Newark mayor one better--he spoke glowingly about Mitt Romney's "sterling" career at Bain.

What's going on here?

The quick answer is that both Booker and Clinton are more comfortable in the world of private equity moguls than among the "people." Both go to them for support and funding. A goodly portion of Booker's campaign money comes from Bain partners (at least $300,000 worth) and the Clinton Foundation gets most of its cash from the uber-wealthy.

Also, the very rich throw great parties.

The more interesting answer is that they both are ambivalent about Obama--Booker, as an African-American always thought about himself as becoming the first black president but then along came Obama and shunted that ambitions aside.

Clinton's real reason for undermining Obama is a bit more complicated. Recall, it was Toni Morrison who designated him the "first black president" and to be thus anointed was his all time favorite thing.

Then, of course, out of love and guilt he worked hard in 2008 to secure the Democratic nomination for Hillary. Even though husband Bill was our first black president, as Bubba, he also felt he had cred among white folks in the South and was the first to overtly play the race card during the crucial South Carolina primary.

Interviewed by ABC News during the 2008 campaign he linked Barack Obama to the much more militant-feeling Jessie Jackson who won the SC primaries in 1984 and '88. For Clinton to plant the idea that Obama was just like Jackson was more than racial code.

But, in spite of Bill Clinton's best efforts (at least his conscious ones), Obama won the nomination and the presidency, adding insult to injury along the way by describing Ronald Reagan (accurately) as a "transformative" president. Bill Clinton? Not so much.

And then Obama made things better (or worse) for Bill by naming Hillary Clinton his Secretary of State.

Back, then, to last week's comments about Romney's "sterling business career": Barack Obama during his first term has rarely turned to Bill Clinton for more than casual advice. Yes, Bill has his foundation, is widely visible, and has made tens of millions; but he has been kept agonizably at arms length from presidential power, the ultimate aphrodisiac.

And we know how important that is to him.