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Clinton charm

  • Justin Webb
  • 17 Jan 08, 07:48 PM GMT

In this topsy-turvey election where pundits' predictions turn to dust in hours, I wonder if the received wisdom on the Clintons also needs to be re-visited.

It's been all about Bill's charm and Hillary's lack of it. Yet suddenly, Bill is angry and charmless and Hillary is playing the part of a naughty air hostess with the apparent ease and pleasure of a Southwest employee. Being the Clintons, they must be doing this deliberately.

The video of Bill getting cross with a San Francisco TV reporter is all over the place at the moment but this clip from the past is still my favourite - heartfelt and authentic and probably not damaging, but the man does get angry!


Making predictions

  • Justin Webb
  • 17 Jan 08, 09:39 AM GMT

Having been right up with all the other journos burned by Obama-mania in New Hampshire I was delighted to see that the political parties themselves are finding it difficult to keep up…

And let us not forget that while the candidates win, lose, win again, lose again etc etc - there is a world to be run and President Bush is still running it.

I remember a former very senior CIA person telling me that they failed utterly to predict the downfall of the Shah because whenever senior American officials went to Tehran in those days they had a ball. The dinners were sumptuous! The hotel rooms were out of this world! I see here that President Bush's own staff, for instance speechwriter Bill McGurn, are in danger of falling into the same trap - the seduction of Middle East wealth, the sense that all is well when all is not well. The dinners! The hotel rooms! Reminds me of Michigan…

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