21st-Century Campaign Trail Bumpier Than Bill Recalls

With an assist from a pesky, unforgiving press, Bill Clinton has turned into a faux pas machine—making him seem more a liability than an asset for his wife. But the former president is in truth the most convincing person on the campaign trail, and is animated by a deep-seated anger at Barack Obama’s attacks on the Clinton legacy, Ryan Lizza writes in the New Yorker.

Bubba says if you buy the spin Barack is selling on the 1990s—a time of caving to banks and other special interests—you “get a very bad grade in history.” But Lizza says for all the YouTubers laughing at Bill’s gaffes, he’s the only one who truly marries policy and persuasion on the stump, and maybe he's right to bristle over being made into a caricature. (More Bill Clinton stories.)