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September 23rd, 2008 at 6:17 am

Video: Bill Clinton on The View 9-22-08 (Full Interview)

Former President Bill Clinton on The View, September 22, 2008

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton made his first ever appearance on ABC’s The View on September 22, 2008.

[He] said on “The View” today that he thinks Senator Barack Obama will win the election, and yet he had much praise for Senator John McCain.

He also said his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, would have been the best choice for vice president “in the short run,” and that she had won the popular vote in the primaries. He also said that some of the media coverage of her campaign had been sexist.

Until the Democratic convention last month, the former president had had some trouble convincing people that he was wholly behind Mr. Obama, who had beat Mrs. Clinton in the primaries.

But at the convention, Mr. Clinton gave his whole-hearted endorsement, saying that “Barack Obama is ready to lead America and to restore American leadership in the world” and that he would work on his behalf.

In that convention speech, Mr. Clinton listed several reasons why Mr. Obama was ready: he can inspire people, raise hopes, rally people to high purpose, he has “the intelligence and curiosity every successful president needs,” his policies are “far superior to the Republican alternatives,” he has shown “a clear grasp of foreign policy and national security challenges and a firm commitment to rebuild our badly strained military,” his life experiences “have given him a unique capacity to lead our increasingly diverse nation in an ever more interdependent world,” the long primary process “tested and strengthened him” and with his first big decision, his selection of a running mate, “he hit it out of the park.”

Granted, that was a political convention, and voters wanted a strong affirmation from Mr. Clinton that he was backing the nominee.

Today on “The View,” where the audience was probably more diverse than the hall in Denver, Mr. Clinton was more restrained. He said Mr. Obama would win but went on to say, “I genuinely like both of them, I genuinely — I think that we make a terrible mistake believing that we have to find something wrong with the people we can’t vote for.”

He added: “If it had not been for John McCain, I’m not sure I could have normalized relations with Vietnam. I was an opponent of the Vietnam War, he spent five and a half years in a prison camp.” Mr. McCain’s support made it “a lot easier” for Mr. Clinton to act, he said.

Source: Former President Clinton on ‘The View’

President Clinton told The View that had Obama chosen his wife instead of Delaware Sen. Joe Biden it would have been “the best politically,” and that his wife would have likely taken the job though she didn’t want it.

“It’s a very personal decision who should be vice president. I like Sen. Biden a lot. I think he was a good choice. [Hillary Clinton] would have been the best politically at least in the short run because of her enormous support in the country,” he said.

President Clinton said Sen. Clinton would have felt duty-bound to accept the offer, but that she enjoys being a senator.

“She said, ‘if [Obama] asks, I’ll do it, because it’s my duty.’ She loves being a senator for New York and has more freedom to develop her positions on the issues and her things,” the former president said.

Source: Bill Clinton: Hillary Never Wanted to be Obama’s VP

Photo credit: ABC

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