Politics

Bill On GOP Field: ‘They’re No Dummies’ [VIDEO]

Christian Datoc Senior White House Correspondent
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Former president Bill Clinton talked about his wife’s 2016 chances on Jake Tapper’s “State of the Union” debut Sunday.

After throwing Bill a few softballs about the Clinton Foundation, Tapper asked him to don his “political analyst hat” and size-up the GOP Field. Clinton noted that the Republicans have put forth a bevy of strong candidates, but the crowded field will more than likely make things difficult for primary voters.

Bill Clinton: Well there’s a lot of them. It looks more like the Kentucky Derby than Belmont. Tell you what, I like that horse American Pharoah. That was amazing.

First of all, they’ve got a lot of youth, a lot of energy. They’ve got some significant diversity, and they’re no dummies. 

It’s interesting. They believe what they believe. They still believe that trickle-down economics still work better than investment, and they’re convictions are so great that they’re undeterred by evidence. That’s always amazing to me, but they are impressive. And they have some differences of opinion — like the national security issues and the incarceration issues — it’ll be interesting to watch them debate.

I sympathize with the question of how the primary voters are going to decide who to vote for and whether it’s fair or unfair for some people to be eliminated from the televised debate. I don’t know how you listen to 12 people, or however many they’ve got, but here’s what I think:

Republican primary voters, since you and I have been doing this, end up voting for the person they think has the best chance to win. Because the Tea Party has taken over the House. They’ve got all their ideological dreams fulfilled. The reason I’m saying this is it may be harder this year than before to figure out who’s the most electable candidate.

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