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Is Bill Losing His Grip?

Vanity Fair spots the stains on Teflon Bill’s retirement clothes

By Greg Atwan,  Newser User

Posted Jun 2, 2008 10:38 AM CDT

(Newser) – As Hillary’s campaign staggers to a close, a professional Clinton-watcher shines the flashlight back into a familiar face—her husband’s. Bill has had a checkered ex-presidency, Todd Purdum reports in Vanity Fair, as a phalanx of former aides spills about girlfriends (including, maybe, Walter Mondale’s daughter), cash, "cavernous narcissism," and a coterie of dubious friends and associates.

Purdum even speculates that the ex-president’s attacks on Barack Obama, and general crotchetiness, might be a side effect of his 2004 heart surgery, from which confidants say he’s yet to fully recover. Meanwhile, Bubba has surrounded himself with a gang one former aide calls "radioactive." But it’s Clinton’s relentless feeling of infallibility, persecution and righteousness, Purdum argues, that will remain his “unforgivable flaw.”

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., talks with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, at a Memorial Day event in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Monday, May 26, 2008.
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., talks with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, at a Memorial Day event in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Monday, May 26, 2008.   (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
Former President Bill Clinton shakes hands as he campaigns for his wife, Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., in Ciales, Puerto Rico, Tuesday, May 27, 2008.
Former President Bill Clinton shakes hands as he campaigns for his wife, Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., in Ciales, Puerto Rico, Tuesday, May 27, 2008.   (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
Former President Bill Clinton speaks to a crowd  in the Shroyer Gym, Saturday, May 24, 2008 at Montana State University in Bozeman, Mont. in support of his wife.
Former President Bill Clinton speaks to a crowd in the Shroyer Gym, Saturday, May 24, 2008 at Montana State University in Bozeman, Mont. in support of his wife.   (AP Photo/The Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Erik Petersen)
Former President Bill Clinton speaks during a campaign event for his wifein Great Falls, Mont.
Former President Bill Clinton speaks during a campaign event for his wifein Great Falls, Mont.   (AP Photo/Great Falls Tribune, Larry Beckner)
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