Politics' Longest-Running Hit: The Bill and Hillary Show

The media check in on Bill and Hillary

With a regularity somewhere between circadian and cicadian, the media can't quite ever tear itself away from that great political soap opera that is nearly concluding its second decade -- The Bill & Hillary Show. 

The Clintons never fail to enthrall, entrance, infuriate and repulse -- depending on the audience. Sure enough, the last week or so gave morsels to just about anyone and everyone who needed a taste of something Clinton. 

So what's the state of the Clinton marriage?  Hmmm...considering what happened at the Clinton Global Initiative last week, it would seem that things are good. How do we know? Because, well, this couple that has been married more than a quarter century, you know, kissed!!!  And it made headlines!!! And Bill still loves his Hillary.  We know this, because he told us:

"I want to begin by expressing my extreme indebtedness to the Clinton Global Initiative, to all of you who participated, for giving me the first chance I have had in a week to see Hillary," Clinton told the audience of social activists and business leaders at the closing session of CGI, a week-long conference designed to find solutions to global problems through public and private partnerships.

 She responded in kind: 

"It won't surprise you to hear that I am very proud of my husband, and I think what he has invented and brought to life here is extraordinary," she said, adding that the new State Department food initiative, in part, was an idea she developed by seeing the kinds of partnerships the Clinton Global Initiative produced.                                                    

They kissed as they headed off stage. Huzzah!! Huzzah!!

A few days later Bill then headed to Meet The Press where the old chestnut of the "vast right-wing conspiracy" popped up, in conjunction with the latest conservative criticism of Barack Obama.  That phrase, of course, originated with Hillary back in the halcyon days of Ken Starr and the Monica Lewinsky saga.  

Which, of course, made the timing just perfect that a former Clinton aide stepped forward in the last few days with claims that then-President Clinton got a little too huggy with her while on a foreign trip in 2000. Considering that a book about somebody working as a policy aide might not otherwise hit the bestseller list, what's the best way to primp sales?  Make sure to tease the pliant media with a bit of Clinton trivia (that may or may not be true)!

And, of course, the media complies.  Why not, even with a charismatic, young and relatively popular current president, nothing quite sells like that Bill and Hillary show.   

Even if there's not really much happening there.    

New York writer Robert A. George blogs at Ragged Thots. Follow him on Twitter.

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