Clinton to Obama: Fight Back!

Bill Clinton thinks Barack Obama and the Democrats need to more forcefully refute Republican attacks if they want to avoid a midterm meltdown. “He’s being criticized for being too disengaged, for not caring,” Clinton told Politico yesterday. “So he needs to turn into it.” Referring to this incident he said, “I may be one of the few people that think it’s not bad that that lady said she was getting tired of defending him. He needs to hear it.”

“So I tell him to sort of try to get the country up again without being—looking—naïve or la-la,” Clinton continued. “Embrace people’s anger, including their disappointment at you. And just ask ‘em to not let the anger cloud their judgment.” Clinton also bashed Democrats who were distancing themselves from Obama, saying local strategies “just won’t work.” (More Bill Clinton stories.)