The Sad Irrelevance of Bill Clinton

“The Man from Hope”… “The Comeback Kid”… “Slick Willie”…

Two laudatory nicknames and one not-so-kind, but arguably far more accurate. All three describe the 42nd President of the United States, William Jefferson Blythe III.

William Jefferson Blythe III?

Yes, that was Bill Clinton’s birthname, the son of William Jefferson Blythe Jr. and Virginia Cassidy. Clinton’s parents were married on September 4, 1943, but his dad, a traveling salesman, was killed in an automobile accident three months before Bill’s birth on August 19, 1946, in Hope, AR.

However, it turns out that Clinton’s parents weren’t really married after all because Blythe Jr. was still married to his fourth wife at the time he married Bill’s mom. Only in Arkansas, right?

In any case, young Bill was initially raised by his maternal grandparents while his mother attended nursing school in New Orleans. She returned four years later, married Roger Clinton Sr., an auto dealer, and the family moved to Hot Springs. Young Bill started using his stepdad’s last name immediately but didn’t formally adopt it until he was 15.

Fast forward to January 20, 2001…

Despite multiple scandals including Whitewater and the Monica Lewinsky affair that led to his impeachment in December 1998, President Clinton left the White House with record approval ratings. Sadly for Bill, it’s been all downhill ever since.

First came the William J. Clinton Foundation and its stepchild, the Clinton Global Initiative. Very few international relief organizations have a worse record than these two self-serving and quasi money-laundering entities as far as the use of donors’ dollars is concerned.

Next up were the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, where Bill went all-out to secure Hillary the nomination, only to be blindsided by the upstart junior senator from Illinois named Barack Obama.

Hillary licked her wounds, bided her time, and was finally coronated in 2016, much to Bernie Sanders’ chagrin. Only this time, a political novice named Donald J. Trump rained on Hillary’s parade, providing further evidence of Bill’s rapidly declining political influence.

In 2024, Bill once again sought to become a major player on the political stage by endorsing Joe Biden’s re-election campaign early and often. When Joe and his campaign imploded following his disastrous debate performance, Bill wrote it off by saying, "bad debate nights happen". However, once pressure mounted and Biden was forced out of the race, Bill switched gears and threw his wholehearted support behind Vice-President Kamala Harris.

Just try and forget the blatant hypocrisy of the poster boy for sexual harassment (and assault) in the workplace championing the party of the #MeToo Movement. Surreal for sure.

Stumping for Harris in various battleground states, Clinton caused a backlash by criticizing Arab and Muslim Americans hesitant to support Harris due to her previous pro-Israeli position, stating Israel had been "forced" to kill civilians during the war in Gaza. The Institute for Middle East Understanding responded by saying that "Bill Clinton’s racist and ahistorical remarks were meant to justify the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land. The Harris campaign is doing itself no favors attaching itself to that kind of hateful rhetoric".

After the election, some pundits blamed Clinton for why Harris lost support among Arab-American voters and why she underperformed in Muslim-populated cities like Dearborn, Michigan. Other political analysts said that Bill’s “centrist policies and promotion of candidates who align with his views no longer work with a party that has tried to rebrand itself after losing support amongst progressive and populist supporters.”

At age 78, Bill is in uncertain health, having survived quadruple heart bypass surgery in 2004, a collapsed lung in 2005, two coronary stents in 2010, sepsis in 2021, COVID-19 in 2022, and a fever that required hospitalization as recently as December 2024. Thankfully for Bill, his bank account is in much better condition.

Clinton began his presidency with a net worth of $1.3 million, but since leaving office has accumulated a net worth of $120 million. In fact, Bill and Hillary Clinton have earned more than $250 million to date from speaking engagements, book advances and royalties, and through investment and consulting fees.

And so, my advice to Bill and Hillary is to just stay home in Chappaqua and count your money because America is tired of both of you… and with good reason.