Remember back a long, long time ago when people fretted over how Bill’s foibles might impact Hillary’s fortunes?

It’s been quite a long while - - like, about sixty days ago - - since we were informed of Hillary’s new “commandment” for the current election season. As the Washington Post put it, “Thou shalt not mention anything related to the impeachment of her husband.”

It’s true. Earlier this year Mrs. Clinton “put her rivals on notice” and all but dared other Democrats “to mention the ordeal again.” Her campaign operatives even threw out a pre-emptive strike, claiming that anyone daring to reference Bill’s White House problems would be engaging in “the politics of personal destruction,” and would be “hitting below the belt.”

Not only that, some were suggesting way back then that Hillary might at times need to silently avoid having Bill with her on the campaign trail because, loveable as he is, President Bill Clinton still denotes scandal and chaos in the minds of some American voters.

That was two months ago, and, well, you know…times have changed.

Today, Bill Clinton has emerged as the new Jackie-O!

And how in the world could former President Clinton possibly compare to former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis?

Well, first let’s do a quick review of the Kennedy’s. Americans quite rightly have a soft spot in their hearts for the former President, and hopefully always will. Any life senselessly cut short by an assassin’s bullet raises a sense of shame and injustice in the American psyche, and when it’s the life of a President that is taken, the nation’s entire history is stained.

Similarly, Jackie-O will forever be the object of deep American sympathy and respect, especially given the existence of that traumatic video footage of her at the moment of her husband’s shooting, and for the dignified life she created for herself after leaving the White House.

But long before Jacqueline Kennedy was an Onassis - - indeed, long before John F. Kennedy was President - - the First Lady- to-be was a profoundly helpful “resource” in helping to get her husband elected.

Beautiful and charming, she once wandered into a grocery store in Wisconsin back in 1960 and turned the visit into a seemingly impromptu campaign event. Commandeering the microphone of the store’s p.a. system, Mrs. Kennedy began speaking, saying “…Just keep on with your shopping…while I tell you about my husband…”

For his part, President Kennedy apparently understood that even though HE was President, his wife was at times the real “star.” Months after his narrow, hard-fought victory over Richard Nixon, the newly elected President paid a diplomatic visit to France at the invitation of President Charles De Gaulle, and seemed to grasp that the warm welcome from the French people was more about her, than about him.

When the time came, President Kennedy stood up at the state dinner in Paris and humbly stated “…I do not think it altogether inappropriate to introduce myself. I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it…”

Smart politics? You bet. Jackie improved the way people perceived JFK, and JFK let her do it. And a similar dynamic is playing-out right now.

In the past few weeks, Hillary seems to have abandoned her concerns over “the politics of personal destruction” and a close association with an impeached former President, and now has moved on to “the politics of personal re-construction,” while seemingly taking every opportunity to have Bill at her side. Continued...