Does Bill Want Hillary to Win? Matthews Not Sure

Is it conceivable that Bill Clinton doesn't want Hillary to win? Chris Matthews floated the possibility on this afternoon's "Hardball."

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At the top of the show, Matthews played a clip from Bill Clinton's remarks last night to the American Postal Worker's Union. Clinton analogized the criticism of Hillary's evasive debate performance last week in Philly to the Swiftboat ads on John Kerry and attacks on Al Gore and former Dem senator Max Cleland.

Observed Matthews with vehemence: "The one person that Al Gore blames for his defeat in 2000 was the man just talking. Check with Al."

Matthews then brought in MSNBC contributor Mike Barnicle and Lois Romano of WaPo to discuss whether Hillary is "hitting the panic button."

CHRIS MATTHEWS: You know what? When she said "I'm your girl" at that labor debate out in Chicago, when she said "I'm your girl," I thought that was the best line, that was Cat Ballou [Hillary as Jane Fonda?]. That was the hot chick -- I'm sorry, the hot woman, doing something well, saying "I can beat those guys."

But when she gets her husband to come in like this, big teddy bear, saying [imitating Clinton's accent] "leave my wife alone," everybody goes "wait a minute. She's running for leader of the world, and you gotta come in and defend her? Stop it! Get out of the way, Bill!"

LOIS ROMANO: He's the First Defender.

MATTHEWS: I wonder whether he wants her to win or not, or whether he just wants to look like he wants her to win. I don't know those people that well.

ROMANO: Oh, come on. He wants to get back in that White House.

MATTHEWS: I don't know him. I don't know what he's doing. I love the intrigue.

If Bill's shenanigans back in the day merited a Hillary lamp-hurl, how will the Senator from New York react if she decides Bill's trying to wreck her White House bid?

Bryan at Hot Air: "Vote for Hillary Clinton and you get all the Clinton corruption and doubletalk without any of the greasy charm that at least made him entertaining. She’s so bad at that part of the job that Bill Clinton keeps having to do it for her." Bryan also sums up the driver's license question succinctly.