Bill Clinton's Rwanda Rehab

The comeback this time is low-key and far away as the former president surfaces from his Democratic primary flameout for a Washington Post interview, sounding subdued and philosophical.

Sidelined by the Obama campaign, he is on "a grueling journey across Africa to visit some of the places where his charitable foundation has been active--and in the process re-establish his role as a global elder statesman."

If he is not at the red-hot center of the '08 political action, Clinton can turn his energies to exhorting disappointed Hillary admirers to stay in the game locally--and perhaps for four or eight years from now.

"What we Democrats can't afford to do, even as we support Senator Obama, is try to build one America on the cheap," Clinton tells the Post, explaining that they should not tell themselves, "I voted across the racial divide; I have no obligations to do something in my community or around the world," urging them "to heave-to here. We've got to show up."

Asked about Obama's overseas trip, Clinton somehow manages to disparage it by consoling the candidate: "(T)he benefit Senator Obama may get out of that trip may come later in the course of this campaign in ways that aren't as obvious as having however many people--200,000 people or however many people--showed up in Berlin...

"He should not be either discouraged or encouraged by the reaction of that trip. He should internalize it. It should be a thing that had merit for him in and of itself. And the fact that it had very little political impact in the short run should be of no concern to anybody. Most voters don't have the space for it right now."

It's clear that Bill Clinton is out there trying to internalize his own misadventures on the campaign trail, even though most Americans back here may not have much space for caring about it right now.