In an AP story by Fournier, he lists the different segments of the Democratic Party who may have a bone to pick with the Clintons, and now see a way out vis-à-vis Barack Obama's ascendancy. These are people that won't think twice about abandoning the Clinton Ship as it sinks—and they'll let it sink without remorse:
- Labor leaders still angry that Bill Clinton championed the North American Free Trade Agreement as part of his centrist agenda.
- Social activists who lobbied unsuccessfully to get him to veto welfare reform legislation, a talking point for his 1996 re-election campaign.
- Some served in Congress when the Clintons dismissed their advice on health care reform in 1993. Some called her a bully at the time.
- DNC members who saw the party committee weakened under the Clintons and watched President Bush use the White House to build up the Republican National Committee.
- Senators who had to defend Clinton for lying to the country about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
- Allies of former Vice President Al Gore who still believe the Lewinsky scandal cost him the presidency in 2000.
- House members (or former House members) who still blame Clinton for Republicans seizing control of the House in 1994.
- Donors who paid for the Clintons' campaigns and his presidential library.
- Folks who owe the Clintons a favor but still feel betrayed or taken for granted. Could that be why Bill Richardson, a former U.N. secretary and energy secretary in the Clinton administration, refused to endorse her even after an angry call from the former president? "What," Bill Clinton reportedly asked Richardson, "isn't two Cabinet posts enough?"
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