#DNC2012: Bill Clinton continues to do Barack Obama no favors

I love it:

More Bill Clinton-induced headaches for President Obama’s re-election team?

Clinton told CNBC today that that the U.S. is in “a recession,” and that Congress should extend all the George W. Bush tax cuts due to expire at the end of the year.

“What I think we need to do is find some way to avoid the fiscal cliff, to avoid doing anything that would contract the economy now, and then deal with what’s necessary in the long term debt-reduction plans as soon as they can, which presumably would be after the election,” Clinton said.

Obama wants to extend the Bush tax cuts only for middle class taxpayers. He wants to end them for individuals making more than $200,000 a year, and couples making $250,000, saying the wealthy should contribute more to reduce the federal debt.

Republicans, who want to extend all the Bush tax cuts, gleefully e-mailed and Tweeted Clinton’s comments.

[…]

Clinton’s latest comments come less than a week after the former rankled some Obama supporters by praising the “sterling” business record of Republican candidate Mitt Romney. Clinton later said his comments were twisted, and he was in no way endorsing Romney.

The article goes on to say Clinton has criticized Romney since his now-infamous comments about Bain Capital, but the reality of it is no matter how much Clinton attacks the Romney campaign, he – a high profile “promoter” of President Obama for reelection – will be quoted extensively by the opposition in Tweets, on talking head shows, ads, etc. when he portrays Romney in a favorable light …. especially when you consider that Clinton’s core praises of Romney have been on the very issues the Obama campaign has directly targeted for sustained criticism.

Clinton, as I’ve said before, is a liability for Obama 2012 but at the same time gives the President some much-needed “gravitas” by the very nature of being able to say “Former President Clinton supports my campaign.”   It’s a Catch-22. And Clinton, unlike Vice President Biden and Mayor Cory Booker, can’t and won’t be muzzled by the Democrat machine.

To be continued (hopefully) …