MSNBC Host and former Florida Congressman Joe Scarborough says President Barack Obama should adopt former President Bill Clinton as a role model for the remainder of his time in office.
"You have to love the job, you have to be crazy like Bill Clinton, who absolutely loved that job, wants to come back as the first gentleman," the Republican and host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" told an audience in Washington Wednesday night.
"You heard all these stories about how Bill Clinton would be up at midnight still working the phones," Scarborough added during a political forum
sponsored by Politico.
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Scarborough suggested the problems with the new healthcare law and other issues that Obama and his team are facing may stem from a feeling that they simply don't "love the job."
"It's not what [Obama] expected," he declared, observing that he believes Obama's presidency has "been such a miserable experience for him from the beginning."
Asked whether Bill Clinton would help or hurt former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's campaign if she runs for president in 2016, Scarborough suggested there could be trouble ahead because her husband "can't control what he says."
On a personal level, though, Scarborough gushed over the former president. "He's like a Beach Boys' song . . . He's like an octopus . . . I love him. Who doesn't love Bill Clinton?"
Scarborough, who served as conservative member of the House for six years, has been mentioned from time to time as a possible presidential contender. He dodged questions about that possibility at the Politico event but mentioned former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush as someone who could represent the GOP well in a campaign.
He said he was not yet convinced Bush would run, but added, "As a leader, I’m blown away by him. He’s one of those guys, he’s an economic conservative, he’s a true believer and he’s somehow figured out how to do it without a sharp edge.
“That said, I just don’t know if he’s going to run.”
Scarborough is promoting his new book released Tuesday, which is called "The Right Path: From Ike to Reagan, How Republicans Once Mastered Politics—and Can Again," which focuses on the party's current divisions and the inability of politicians to get anything done in Washington.
At the Politico event, he compared the political culture of Washington now to the mafia, saying it's impossible to get anything done because most lawmakers won't go against their own conferences.
“It used to be that guys and women that could get independents and Democrats voting for Republicans, they were applauded. It’s transformed. Now they’re called traitors, they’re called RINOs [Republicans in name only],” Scarborough said.
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