Carter Gives Clinton the Cold Shoulder

Longevity expert debunks myth that White House duty shortens life

(NEWSER) - President Obama's graying hair has set off the typical chatter that serving as president is so stressful it's bound to take years off a person's life. Not so, says a longevity expert in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In fact, our presidents tend to live longer than the rest of us. S. Jay Olshansky of the University of Illinois crunched the numbers involving 34 presidents who died of natural causes and found that 23 exceeded the life expectancy of men in their era, reports Reuters . More»

President has done a lot to benefit the country: ex-president

(NEWSER) - The American public doesn't appreciate what President Obama has done for the country, Bill Clinton says. Though the two have had a somewhat frosty relationship since the campaign, Politico notes, Clinton said yesterday: “I think he's done a better job than he's given credit for. I feel very strongly about this.” Clinton noted that any president's approval rating suffers during a recession. More»

Enough already with Harvard and Yale: blogger

(NEWSER) - The Supreme Court and White House may as well be decorated in ivy, complains David Bernstein. "Once Elena Kagan gets confirmed, every Supreme Court Justice will have attended Harvard or Yale law schools," he writes. And Kagan—whose bachelor's degree, for the record, is from Princeton—was nominated by a Harvard-educated president who beat Yale and Harvard opponents to succeed a Yalie who himself succeeded ... oh, you get the picture. More»

Clinton was still in contention in June: new memoir

(NEWSER) - The Obama campaign seriously considered Hillary Clinton for vice president, but ultimately the perception that her husband was "too big a complication" combined with bad memories from the primary campaign to sink her chances. Barack Obama “said if his central criterion measured who could be the best VP, she had to be included in that list," writes campaign manager David Plouffe in a new memoir, The Audacity to Win. More»

Not surprisingly, Bill Clinton is king of the list

(NEWSER) - David Letterman’s acknowledgement yesterday of some skeletons in his closet is only the latest caught by television’s unforgiving lens; Lisa Todorovich runs down her faves on True/Slant:

• Bill Clinton: The Democratic candidate, with wife Hillary alongside, cops to “mistakes in my marriage in a 1992 interview with CBS.
• Bill Clinton, part deux: “I don’t think there is a fancy way to say that I have sinned,” he told the 1998 White House Prayer Breakfast in admitting his dalliance with Monica Lewinsky.