Unlike most of the crap in media these days, this Hillary Clinton profile in New York Magazine actually made me think a bit. During this campaign, even as I recognized that Bill Clinton was the “worst surrogate ever,” I dismissed all of his damaging tirades about Obama and the media as natural side effects of a loving protective instinct. Though I doubt the Clintons have a traditional marriage (i.e. one with sexytimes in it), I’ve always assumed that they do have a genuine love for each other. I figured Bill was losing it on the campaign trail so much, because he simply couldn’t bear to see people criticize his wife. However, the article in New York Magazine points out that some of Bill’s more notable outbursts from the past primary season devolved into rants about his personal feuds and enemies, and that Hillary’s staffers saw Bill’s behavior as nothing more than selfishness. Reading this made me realize that Bill wasn’t the knight in shining armor that I made him out to be. He wasn’t looking out for Hillary, his actions were all about him and they were very counterproductive to her campaign. So, now I’m wondering if I made excuses for Bill because I am a sexist manpig and think all ladies need dudes protecting them, or did I give Bill a pass because I was a little kid in the early nineties and I idolized Slick Willy? Since I don’t buy the protective husband shit anymore, I also can’t help but wonder: what the hell happened to Bill Clinton?

The Fall and Rise of Hillary Clinton [NYMag]