Bill Clinton Refuses to Say Obama is Ready to Become President

This is becoming a tired act. Bill Clinton (see the video of interview given to ABC news, transcript below) is a bitter man and isn't hiding it very well. He is jealous of Barack Obama and won't do much to get him elected president. That's ok. Mr.Clinton has a track record of not getting other people beside himself elected to anything. He and Hillary are a curse on the Democratic Party. Incredibly most Dems don't understand that yet. If it were not for Bill Al Gore would've become President in 2000. And there are still some smart people that think that Obama would be stupid enough to choose Hillary as a running mate. Bill Clinton's latest comments will insure that won't happen. Here is a part of the transcript of the ABC interview:

BILL CLINTON: I'm not. And I never was mad at Senator Obama. I think everybody's got a right to run for president who qualifies under the Constitution. And I would be the last person to ever begrudge anybody their ambition. And he was a superbly gifted candidate in this election and had a great operation. They thought this thing through. And it's a contact sport. And, you know, he hit her hard a couple times. And they hit us a few times and weeks before she ever responded in kind. The only thing I ever got mad about was people in your line of work, pretending that she had somehow started negative stuff. It's a contact sport.

[...]SNOW: Yeah. Well, people are already studying it. And a lot of people, including your supporters, your donors, say that they blame you at least in part, for her loss. I know you've heard this.

BILL CLINTON: No -- I've heard it from --

SNOW: Do you blame yourself at all?

BILL CLINTON: I've heard it from the press. And I will not comment on this because it interferes with the issue, which is who should be elected in November. I made hundreds and hundreds of speeches, Kate. I bragged on Senator Obama hundreds of times. Now, I will be glad, as soon as this election is over in January, to have this conversation with you and everybody else. I have very strong feelings about it.

SNOW: But, I don't understand why you say it's bad for him to go over --

BILL CLINTON: I live out here in the fact based world -- Well, first of all, you say I don't like this type of modern reporting that says, so-and-so anonymous says this. You know they all say this.

SNOW: Jim Clyburn. Not anonymous. New York Times came out--

BILL CLINTON: Not my supporter. Jim Clyburn

SNOW: A long friend of yours. A longtime friend.

BILL CLINTON: Used to be. He is not my-- He was not Hillary's supporter. Never. Not ever. Not for a day.

SNOW: He said you said you lost a lot of African-American support?

BILL CLINTON: No. The people who were--

SNOW: He said you severely damaged your standing with African-American support?

BILL CLINTON: First of all-- Yeah. That may be by the time he got through working on it, that was probably true. But that's not the same thing. You said I hurt her.

SNOW: I said, your supporters are saying --

BILL CLINTON: No, you said my supporters and then you cited Jim Clyburn.

SNOW: I take your point. But there are supporters of yours who are saying --

BILL CLINTON: You did. But here's what you can do since I don't want to talk about it.

SNOW: Okay.

CLINTON: Go get yourself a map. Look where I went and look what the vote was. Look at Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky.

SNOW: You helped in a lot of places.

BILL CLINTON: Yes.

SNOW: Rural places.

BILL CLINTON: No, not just rural places. Cities. Indiana. So, I got bad press. Why? Because I told the truth. That there was a different standard applied to the finest candidate I ever supported.

SNOW: Pretty simple question. And maybe you don't want to answer it right now and I respect that fully. But, if you want to answer it, do you personally have any regrets about what you did campaigning for your wife?

BILL CLINTON: Yes, but nothing like you think. And it would be counterproductive for me to talk about it. There are things that I wished I urged her to do. Things I wished I had said. Things I wished I hadn't said. But I am not a racist. I never made a racist comment and I didn't attack him personally.

SNOW: Clinton insists the hard-fought primary season made Barack Obama a stronger candidate. Is he ready to be president?

BILL CLINTON: You could argue that no one is ever ready to be president. I mean, I certainly learned a lot about the job in the first year. You could argue that even if you've been vice president for eight years, that no one can ever be fully ready for the pressures of the office. And that everyone learns something, and something different. You could argue that. He's shown a keen strategic sense in his ability to run an effective campaign. He clearly can inspire and motivate people and energize them which is a very important part of being a president. And he's smart as a whip, so there's nothing he can't learn.

SNOW: He won't comment on whether he thinks his wife ought to be Obama's running mate.

BILL CLINTON: It's up to him. It's none of his business. This is my life now.

Here's the NYDaily News' take on Clinton's comments:

Bill Clinton regrets some things he said - and didn't say - on the campaign trail. But there's one thing he still can't utter: Barack Obama is ready to be President.