President Bill Clinton seems to think so.

He said in an NBC interview that the “virulent” right-wing conspiracists that pursued him are now after President Obama. You can roll your eyes, but sit back a moment and think this through.

Was there a virulent group of right-wing folks who openly waitied to see Bill Clinton go down in flames? Yes, and it was quite large. Conspiracy? Well, maybe, if you define conspiracy as like-minded people working in concert with each other. If you define it as a secret, evil, GOP-run plot, then no. But Clinton is right to believe that people were very much targeting him for failure.

Are those same people after President Obama? Yeah, very likely. Certainly the Birthers are a conspiracy by his most charitable definition, and possibly meet the criteria for a sloppier definition as well.

But Clinton is as deluded and foolish as most of the other Democrats if he believes the right-wing conspiracy is dropping Obama’s popularity numbers. This conspiracy group probably accounts for less than 1% of Americans.

No, President Clinton: millions and millions of Americans are dropping their support for President Obama because of what Obama has done (or not done).

Let us put it another way: The Democrats have to take the blame for their own screw-ups. Blaming right-wing conspiracy groups, media complexes, Republican agitators, healthcare companies, racists, and AM talk radio hosts for every dropping poll point explains why those poll points are dropping.

The Democrats need only look in the mirror to see why they are facing an electoral enema.

About that, Clinton doubts that 2010 will be a repeat of 1994. Why? Because the country is more interested in positive, diverse action! (Which is indeed why the Congressional approval ratings are way lower than they were in 1994) And because Americans have seen how bad it got when Republicans owned the government for the last eight years! (Again, compare approval ratings and get back to us.) And third, “Democrats haven’t taken on the gun lobby like I did, and they took 15 out of our members out.”

Wow. What a weird thing to say. Either President Clinton is saying he screwed up, or he is saying that Obama is screwing up on gun control. Either way, someone screwed up. And knowing Bill Clinton, it’s Obama—and that screw up, he believes, will keep Obama in power. The Czar cannot figure this out at all.

So here is what President Clinton said: no matter what bad things happen, it has to be someone else’s fault. Not someone in particular: just someone else. Some secret group. And even though the poll numbers keep dropping to record lows, Democrats should be able to keep their majority in 2010 because Bill Clinton was such a swell guy in 1994 and Obama is not.

Whew. No wonder President Obama keeps him at arm’s length.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.