Bill Clinton to the Rescue

The feel-your-pain politician of all time has saddled up to snatch his beloved Democratic Party from Karl Rove and the Tea Party villains who have her tied to the tracks for the oncoming November 2 locomotive.

This is Bill Clinton at his best, telling crowds, “Essentially what our party is asking in these elections is four years to get out of a hole the American people gave them eight years to dig. It seems fair to me, don’t you think?”

Whatever his character defects, the former Comeback Kid has the empathy thing down pat, telling a rally, "I know you're angry. I know you're scared...But concentrate your anger so that it clarifies your judgment instead of clouding it...The worst thing you can do right now is bring back the shovel brigade to start digging the hole again...

"To hear the Republicans tell it, from the second President Obama took his hand off the Bible taking the oath of office, everything that happened after that was his fault, I'd like to see any of you get behind a locomotive going straight downhill at 200 miles an hour and stop it in 10 seconds."

In painting the picture so vividly, the former President is doing what the current one can't, constrained both by the dignity of the office and his own temperament.

"I called the president the other day," Clinton told another rally, "and I said: 'Relax. They haven't said anything about you they didn't say about me. The only reason they're being nice to me right now is because I can't run for anything any more.'"

But Hillary can, and as usual in Clintonland, there may be an element of calculation for her future in her husband's all-out effort to save Democrats this year.

But with so much at stake, the party may be wishing it had a dozen Slick Willies out there delivering the message the way only Bill Clinton can. At election time, being a very good politician is not a bad thing.