Bill Clinton: Wallace, FOX Victim or Ploy

Was Bill Clinton's blowup during a Chris Wallace interview really sincere or a ploy to make FOX look bad? We shouldn't put it past "Slick Willie" that he would knowingly have a confrontation with the FOX correspondent for campaign purposes. Bill Clinton seemed justifiably angry. Wallace's question that set off the former President seems peculiar except that he works for a network that is clearly sympathetic to the Bush administration. And certainly Bill Clinton is sensitive to the issue in light of the uproar over ABC's "The Path to 9/11."

Bill Clinton point 1:

"And I think it's very interesting that all the conservative Republicans, who now say I didn't do enough, claimed that I was too obsessed with bin Laden. All of President Bush's neo-cons thought I was too obsessed with bin Laden. They had no meetings on bin Laden for nine months after I left office. All the right-wingers who now say I didn't do enough said I did too much — same people."

Chris Wallace's comeback:

"'... they said about you and President Bush, and I quote, 'The U.S. government took the threat seriously, but not in the sense of mustering anything like the kind of effort that would be gathered to confront an enemy of the first, second or even third rank.'"

Bill Clinton defends Richard Clarke:

"He has a variety of opinion and loyalties now, but let's look at the facts: He worked for Ronald Reagan; he was loyal to him. He worked for George H. W. Bush; he was loyal to him. He worked for me, and he was loyal to me. He worked for President Bush; he was loyal to him."

Bill Clinton takes on George Bush:

"But at least I tried. That's the difference in me and some, including all the right-wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try. They did not try. I tried."

Bill Clinton has a question for Chris Wallace:

"I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked, 'Why didn't you do anything about the Cole?'"

Bill Clinton makes an accusation against FOX:

"You set this meeting up because you were going to get a lot of criticism from your viewers because Rupert Murdoch's supporting my work on climate change.

And you came here under false pretenses and said that you'd spend half the time talking about — you said you'd spend half the time talking about what we did out there to raise $7-billion-plus in three days from 215 different commitments. And you don't care."

Bill Clinton gets personal with Chris Wallace:

"And you've got that little smirk on your face and you think you're so clever. But I had responsibility for trying to protect this country. I tried and I failed to get bin Laden. I regret it. But I did try. And I did everything I thought I responsibly could."

Bill Clinton talks about Iraq:

"But even if they agree with us about the Iraq war, we [Democrats] could be hurt by Karl Rove's new foray if we just don't make it clear that we, too, care about the security of the country. But we want to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations, which they haven't for four years. We want to intensify our efforts in Afghanistan against bin Laden. We want to make America more energy-independent."