Legal Commentary

"Bill Clinton "is rather a master of what one might call 'strategic emotion,' the use of tears or anger to comfort voters or intimidate the press."

By Ann Althouse

During his presidency Clinton lashed out at, among others, then-ABC White House correspondent Brit Hume in 1993; reporters who continued to raise questions about his involvement with Monica Lewinsky in 1998; and the Senate Republicans who rejected the 1999 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

These days the former president?s "outbursts" serve a dual purpose: they lend the impression that Senator Clinton is the insurgent running against the media-supported Obama, while also creating the illusion that it is the former president, not his wife, who is actually the candidate for the Democratic nomination. Far from hurting Senator Clinton ? who also understands how to deploy strategic emotion, as we saw before the New Hampshire Democratic primary ? former President Clinton effectively has rallied a coalition of Democrats to her cause.

Full post as published by Althouse on January 22, 2008 (boomark / email).