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Listen to some of these clips from Bill Clinton during Hillary’s run, as it became clear she was going to lose.

Bill Clinton claims that the race card was used against him:

Now look at how testy Bill Clinton is getting with the media here last week:

Also check out this quote from Bill last week regarding the media:

“It’s all politics,” Bill Clinton told Huffington Post. “It’s all about the bias of the media for Obama. Don’t think anything about it. But I’m telling ya’, all it’s doing is driving her supporters further and further away — because they know exactly what it is — this has been the most rigged coverage in modern history — and [Purdum] ought to be ashamed of himself. But he has no shame. It isn’t the first dishonest piece he’s written about me or her.”

He also was quoted as saying “It’s part of the national media’s attempt to nail Hillary for Obama. It’s just the most biased press coverage in history. It’s another way of helping Obama.” So what exactly is Bill talking about? What’s happening here?

Basically, Bill Clinton is right. The mainstream media, which in the past has been ridiculously pro-Clinton, changed gears this election and went in for Obama in a big way and did its best to derail Hillary’s campaign. Even when Hillary would win a primary, they’d mostly focus on Obama. It was mind-boggling, really. Obama would win, he’d be the focus of coverage. When he’d lose, he’d still be the focus of coverage. There were puff pieces galore about Obama, meanwhile the media would downplay any questionable ties he had or not report any of his public speaking gaffes, like this one on Memorial Day where he apparently saw ghosts:

On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes, and I see many of them in the audience here today, our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.

Meanwhile every misstep Hillary did in this race was blown out of proportion. (And let’s be real, if Bush did that speaking gaffe about the ghosts it would have made the rounds over and over on the Daily Show, Colbert and the rest of the late night circuit, and even carried over onto the morning shows). I’m not too sorry for the Clintons though. They’ve been the beneficiaries of media bias so long, it’s somehow a fitting irony that Hillary ends up becoming a victim of media bias for once.

Then the final killing blow was delivered by Vanity Fair last week when it conveniently released this poorly-sourced article about Bill Clinton’s shenanigans. It starts:

Old friends and longtime aides are wringing their hands over Bill Clinton’s post-White House escapades, from the dubious (and secretive) business associations to the media blowups that have bruised his wife’s campaign, to the private-jetting around with a skirt-chasing, scandal-tinged posse. Some point to Clinton’s medical traumas; others blame sheer selfishness, and the absence of anyone who can say “no.” Exploring Clintonworld, the author asks if the former president will be consumed by his own worst self.

And it only goes downhill from there. But why exactly did a scandalous article about Bill Clinton need to be released at this critical juncture? Were people really clamoring to know more about Bill’s shenanigans after all these years, and particularly now when there are so many more pressing issues on the public’s mind like the elections, the economy and gas prices? It served no purpose except to drive the final nail in the coffin of Hillary’s campaign. It was a hit piece, pure and simple, except the real target was Hillary, not Bill. The media wants Obama to win, and wanted to do everything they could to ensure that Hillary would either drop out or lose decisively.

Now that Hillary’s campaign is basically over, note how positively the media is covering her again. They now gush over her and want to rehabilitate her image and build her back up for two reasons. The first reason is in case she becomes Obama’s running mate. Her reputation needs to be stellar again by then so that her addition to the ticket doesn’t hurt Obama’s chances. The second reason for the media to fix her image is so that her supporters will calm down, be placated and not get so bitter that they decide to vote for McCain over Obama. Unfortunately for the media, this second goal may be harder to achieve than they expected.

At this point the media’s strategy of lionizing Obama and demonizing Hillary is beginning to backfire as Hillary’s embittered followers are talking either of abstaining altogether from voting, or worse, voting for John McCain. There is major bitterness and rage on the part of many Hillary followers over what they perceive to be unfair treatment of Hillary by the media and Obama. Over at Hillary’s official blog, even as they’re reciting the official party line and urging Democrats to “come together ,” you can see 700+ comments on the thread by irate Hillary supporters who are angry with Obama and the media and are declaring their intent to vote for McCain as a result of the bitter campaign. (The comments really do make for a fascinating read; the shrillness is bad even by the standards of extremely radical feminists)

Also, check out Hillary’s concession speech, which you can see here. She mentions Obama favorably over a dozen times, but each time she uses the phrase “We must elect Barack Obama,” the crowd’s reaction is less and less enthusiastic, and you can hear a lot of people actually booing. The last time she says it there’s almost no applause save for some weak, polite clapping from the people behind her.

And according to the NY Post, McCain is poised to take advantage of this Democratic rift:

Polls show around 30 percent of Hillary Clinton’s voters saying they’ll vote for John McCain. Most will come around – but if only 5 percent of her 18 million voters stray to the GOP side, that could be enough to swing the election.

The McCain camp is on it. It believes it can siphon off older female voters, who are skeptical over Obama’s lack of experience. McCain clearly heard Clinton’s battle cry after the final primary, when she said she wanted her voters to be respected. His surrogate, Carly Fiorina, even told reporters she believed Clinton suffered sexist treatment during the campaign – music to these Clinton supporters’ ears.

McCain started courting Clinton’s voters in the days between that last primary and her concession speech. He said the media had mistreated Clinton and talked of how much he respects her, noting she was often underappreciated.

Now he’s planning a campaign tour to reach out to her voters, as well as to independent female voters. His campaign has dedicated part of its Web site to them, and is mobilizing high-profile female surrogates to flood states where Clinton won.

Think about that…only 5% of Clinton’s female base will be enough to swing the vote McCain’s way. It will take that little. So of course the mainstream media, which desperately wants Obama to win, is running scared.

Which leads to this article published today by the Daily Mail about John McCain, with the delightfully unbiased and objective headline “The wife U.S. Republican John McCain Callously Left Behind.” From the article:

[T]here is another Mrs McCain who casts a ghostly shadow over the Senator?s presidential campaign. She is seldom seen and rarely written about, despite being mother to McCain?s three eldest children.

And yet, had events turned out differently, it would be she, rather than Cindy, who would be vying to be First Lady. She is McCain?s first wife, Carol, who was a famous beauty and a successful swimwear model when they married in 1965.

She was the woman McCain dreamed of during his long incarceration and torture in Vietnam?s infamous ?Hanoi Hilton? prison and the woman who faithfully stayed at home looking after the children and waiting anxiously for news.

But when McCain returned to America in 1973 to a fanfare of publicity and a handshake from Richard Nixon, he discovered his wife had been disfigured in a terrible car crash three years earlier. Her car had skidded on icy roads into a telegraph pole on Christmas Eve, 1969. Her pelvis and one arm were shattered by the impact and she suffered massive internal injuries.

When Carol was discharged from hospital after six months of life-saving surgery, the prognosis was bleak. In order to save her legs, surgeons had been forced to cut away huge sections of shattered bone, taking with it her tall, willowy figure. She was confined to a wheelchair and was forced to use a catheter.

Through sheer hard work, Carol learned to walk again. But when John McCain came home from Vietnam, she had gained a lot of weight and bore little resemblance to her old self.

Today, she stands at just 5ft4in and still walks awkwardly, with a pronounced limp. Her body is held together by screws and metal plates and, at 70, her face is worn by wrinkles that speak of decades of silent suffering.

For nearly 30 years, Carol has maintained a dignified silence about the accident, McCain and their divorce. But last week at the bungalow where she now lives at Virginia Beach, a faded seaside resort 200 miles south of Washington, she told The Mail on Sunday how McCain divorced her in 1980 and married Cindy, 18 years his junior and the heir to an Arizona brewing fortune, just one month later.
Carol insists she remains on good terms with her ex-husband, who agreed as part of their divorce settlement to pay her medical costs for life. ?I have no bitterness,? she says. ?My accident is well recorded. I had 23 operations, I am five inches shorter than I used to be and I was in hospital for six months. It was just awful, but it wasn?t the reason for my divorce.

?My marriage ended because John McCain didn?t want to be 40, he wanted to be 25. You know that happens…it just does.?

Some of McCain?s acquaintances are less forgiving, however. They portray the politician as a self-centred womaniser who effectively abandoned his crippled wife to ?play the field?. They accuse him of finally settling on Cindy, a former rodeo beauty queen, for financial reasons.

Now just like with the Bill Clinton Vanity Fair story, why this particular story and why now? Could it have something to do with the media viewing woman as reactionary, emotional decisionmakers and hoping that this article will make Hillary’s female base hate McCain for being a cad more than they currently hate Obama, thereby ensuring they won’t cross over to the GOP come November? I’m sure you can put it together for yourselves.

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