"[Obama's] out there running against himself now," Clinton said. "Soon as he gets an opponent, it will be about the next four years -- who do you think is going to take us in the right direction."

Clinton also weighed in a few of the Republican candidates, saying of one-time nemesis Newt Gingrich that he respected the man's ability to "think and do." The former president was, however, momentarily lost for words when O'Reilly followed up by asking if he respected Gingrich "as a man." Clinton tip-toed around the answer, then spent the next few moments criticizng the former speaker's "scorched-earth" political approach.

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First, let's take in the list of Obama's accomplishments as Chait describes them. They're considerable:

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These are questions that obviously can't be answered with any certainty. We'll never know how a Clinton (or a McCain, for that matter) would have tackled the recession or jousted with John Boehner, just as we'll never know what would have transpired if there had been no stimulus at all, or if Obama had taken a more confrontational stance against his Republican opposition from the get-go, rather than pursue a doomed strategy of bipartisan cooperation. We're stuck with the world we've got.

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Take it away, former Virginia Democratic Party chairman Paul Goldman and George Mason professor Mark J. Rozell:

We like Joe and respect Hillary. But if President Barack Obama decides to follow the path of his favorite president, Abraham Lincoln, and change running mates, the insiders are buzzing about the wrong Clinton.

That’s right: a Barack-Bubba ticket is the way to go. True, if elected, Bill Clinton would become our first vegetarian veep — since he’s no longer the fast-food guy. Can a real Bubba eat tofu? And yes, he would be the first former president to hold the job, too.

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I think that, on balance, this could be a positive thing. But they're going to have to transfer their energies at some point to making some specific suggestions or bringing in people who know more to try to put the country back to work.

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By now it's old news that Clinton has struck up a friendly relationship with some of his old right-wing tormentors. Perhaps his most notable rapprochement has been with Christopher Ruddy, who gave life to Vince Foster and Ron Brown conspiracy theories in the 1990s and went on to found the far-right site Newsmax, which once proudly announced that James Carville had labeled Ruddy the Clinton White House's top antagonist.

Ruddy, the story goes, changed his tune a few years ago, concluding that Clinton's actual record as president -- free trade, welfare reform, budget surpluses -- didn't warrant the hysteria that the right had whipped up while he was in office. And Clinton, happy to win over a key component of the right-wing noise machine, was ready and willing to bury the hatchet.

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After a bruising midterm election, the president moves to the political center. He distances himself from his Democratic base. He calls for cuts in Social Security and signs historic legislation ending a major entitlement program. He agrees to balance the budget with major cuts in domestic discretionary spending. He has a showdown with Republicans who threaten to bring government to its knees if their budget demands aren't met. He wins the showdown, successfully painting them as radicals. He goes on to win re-election.

Barack Obama in 2012? Maybe. But the president who actually did it was Bill Clinton. (The program he ended was Title IV of the Social Security Act, Aid to Families with Dependent Children.)

It's no accident that President Obama appears to be following the Clinton script. After all, it worked. Despite a 1994 midterm election that delivered Congress to the GOP and was widely seen as a repudiation of his presidency, President Clinton went on to win re-election. And many of Mr. Obama's top aides -- including Chief of Staff Bill Daley, National Economic Council head Gene Sperling and Pentagon chief Leon Panetta -- are Clinton veterans who know the 1995-96 story line by heart.

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As part of Peter Sagal's "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!" quiz show, Clinton was asked three questions about the cartoon in a segment called "Not My Job." He totally nails it, too.

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The attorney turned envoy tirelessly traveled to Bosnia and the Middle East on peace missions during his 1993-1996 tenure -- including some two dozen to Syria alone in a futile effort to promote a settlement with Israel.

After his work finished carrying out the Clinton administration agenda abroad, the longtime Californian returned home for an active life in local and national affairs and with his law firm.

Late Friday, the 85-year-old statesman died at his home in Los Angeles of complications from bladder and kidney cancer, said Sonja Steptoe of the law firm O'Melveny & Myers, where Christopher was a senior partner.

As he prepared to step down in 1996 as secretary "for someone else to pick up the baton," he said in an interview he was pleased to have played a role in making the United States safer.

Along with his peace efforts, he told The Associated Press that his proudest accomplishments included playing a role in promoting a ban on nuclear weapons tests and extension of curbs on proliferation of weapons technology.

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In the next week the action moves from Wisconsin to Washington, where the deadline looms for a possible government shutdown over the federal budget. President Obama has to take a more direct and personal role in that budget battle -- both for the economy's sake and for the sake of his reelection. But will he? Don't count on it.

Worried congressional Democrats say the President needs to use his bully pulpit to counter defections in Democatic ranks, such as the ten Democrats and one allied Independent who on Wednesday voted against a Senate leadership plan to cut $6.2 billion from the federal budget over the rest of fiscal year 2011. They want Obama to grab the initiative and push a plan to eliminate tax breaks for oil companies and for companies that move manufacturing facilities out of the country, and a proposal for a surtax on millionaires.

Most importantly, they're worried the President's absence from the debate will result in Republicans winning large budget cuts for the remainder of the fiscal year -- large enough to imperil the fragile recovery.

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Bill Clinton did not send many emails during this period of time. In fact he sent only two, according to a surprise talk he gave at today's Wired for Change conference at the Ford Foundation in New York:

I sent a grand total of two emails as president: one to our troops in the Adriatic, and one to John Glenn when he was 77 years old in outer space. I figured it was OK if Congress subpoenaed those.

Here's the "electronic message" Bubba sent to John Glenn. It's now printed in a book.

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In the months before the war, as he'd dispatched hundreds of thousands of troops to the Persian Gulf in response to Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, there had been widespread fear among Americans that President George H.W. Bush was leading them into another Vietnam. But as wars go, Operation Desert Storm proved surprisingly tidy: The verdict was quick and decisive and American casualties were low. It was everything Vietnam hadn't been, and when Bush declared a cease-fire on Feb. 28, a months-long national celebration ensued, complete with parades, prime-time television specials -- and, of course, soaring popularity for the commander in chief, whose leadership was hailed by even his harshest critics.

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While the former White House chief of staff hopes Clinton can persuade voters to cast their ballots for him Feb. 22, a former mayoral contender has warned that Clinton is risking his popular standing with the African American community by backing Emanuel rather than a black candidate.

Clinton is scheduled to appear with Emanuel at the Chicago Cultural Center Tuesday morning. The candidate touted the visit in his campaign mailings over the weekend, mixed with an appeal for campaign donations.

"I'm honored to have President Clinton's support," Emanuel told supporters in the e-mail on Sunday. "I'm excited to show President Clinton the great Chicagoans who've made this campaign possible."

Emanuel is among about a dozen names on the mayoral ballot. Three of his rivals, former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, former schools president Gery Chico and City Clerk Miguel del Valle, have emphasized their deep city roots while claiming Emanuel is more of a Washington insider. Braun has the support of many black leaders in the city, while Chico picked up the endorsement of Congressman Luis Gutierrez this month.

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Then-President Bill Clinton was on the scene and promptly declared that Daley was probably fine. As it turns out, there have been at least four episodes of Clinton-related fainting captured on film and preserved for posterity on the Internet. Without further ado: 

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Several factors will likely work less strongly against Obama in 2012 than against the Obama Democrats in 2010. Turnout will be different, for one thing. We may see again the record turnout of blacks we saw in 2008. Young people who pretty much shunned the polls in the midterms may turn out and vote — though the 34-point margin they gave to Obama was halved to 17 points for congressional Democrats in 2010.

The balance of enthusiasm favored Republicans and conservatives in 2010, as it had favored Democrats in 2006 and 2008. It could conceivably shift and favor the Democrats once again.

Another factor is that polls show that most Americans have favorable personal feelings toward the president. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush both happened to have personal characteristics that people on the other side of the cultural divide absolutely loathed. Obama doesn’t.

His reliance on his teleprompter, his secret smoking, his irritability when not adored — these are pretty minor failings. People like his family and his obvious devotion to them. They don’t mind that he likes to get away and play golf or shoot hoops from time to time.

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Davis, a longtime friend of Clinton, warned the ex-president on Tuesday that he could jeopardize his "long and fruitful relationship" with the black community if he campaigns for former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel instead of one of the two black candidates running -- Davis or former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun.

The warning highlights the stakes in what is gearing up to be a contentious race for mayor in the nation's third-largest city. About a dozen people have made it on to the ballot to replace retiring Mayor Richard M. Daley, who is bowing out after more than 20 years in office, giving candidates their first real shot at Chicago's top job for the first time in two decades.

In a news release, Davis, a Democrat from Chicago's West Side, said Clinton's relationship with the black community may be "fractured and perhaps even broken" if he comes to town to stump for Emanuel, who moved back to Chicago this fall to run for mayor and is leading in the polls.

Davis later told The Associated Press that he intended the news release to be a personal appeal to Clinton, friend to friend.

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But ... why? Clinton left office with good approval ratings and was largely remembered fondly, especially as the Bush years dragged to their depressing end. Bill's also smart and articulate, and his administration's scandals tended to be more personal in nature than Bush's. In addition to being an awful communicator, Bush is famously reticent to reflect on his decisions, and in his book he's obviously relying on other people's written accounts of his presidency, which is ... a bit odd, to say the least.

But people are apparently eating it up, or at least they are paying money for it. Here are my theories:

His publisher is lying

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Pressing for passage by year's end, he told lawmakers in his radio and Internet address Saturday that "our recovery will be strengthened or weakened based on the choice that now rests with Congress."

The deal would extend for all earners cuts in income tax rates that are set to expire next month. It would renew jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and trim Social Security taxes for one year.

Republicans support the plan because it would not impose higher taxes on the wealthiest, as Obama long had wanted to do. Democrats object to the pact on grounds that it is too generous to the rich.

Obama said the agreement will require that both parties accept some things they don't like. But he said the agreement will help the middle-class families that he and others have argued should be spared further economic hardship.

"The opportunity for families to send their kids to college hinges on this debate," Obama said. "The ability of parents to put food on the table while looking for a job depends on this debate."

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