I can't help but suspect that Bill Clinton feels compelled to pick at the Jesse Jackson scab because he's desperately hoping that, at some point, everyone will recognize that he was right all along. It's not just that the backlash over his remarks offends Bill's sense of himself as the first black president. ("But you really got to go some to try to portray me as a racist.") It also runs counter to his rep for having flawless political instincts. I mean, the grand Clinton narrative has long held that Hillary has the poor stump skills and Bill is the political master.
Word around Team Hillary is that Bill was specifically cautioned by campaign folks not to tread into the Jesse Jackson/black voter minefield before he opened his trap. But he did it anyway. Because, come on, who has a better feel for this stuff than he? And maybe, if he can just explain the exquisite reasonableness of his remarks one more time, we'll all see the light.
--Michelle Cottle