It's all about Bill Clinton's attacks

Ari Melber:

Bill Clinton has a negative outburst a few days before each state race in the Democratic primary. There was "roll the dice" before Iowa, and "fairy tale" in New Hampshire. A few days before Nevada voted, he aggressively confronted a reporter on camera, and just pulled the same stunt on a CNN reporter in South Carolina. Each time, the media fixates on the spectacle, dutifully debating whether he is too angry or too misleading. But as Clinton knows, it doesn't even matter what people say, as long as they are talking about him and his latest attacks on Barack Obama. Like clockwork, these supposed outbursts give airtime to attacks while pulling attention away from Obama in the crucial, closing days of each primary. [..]

Bill Clinton's latest attack was on both Obama and a CNN reporter, whom he blasted for focusing on Clinton's misleading statements about Obama, instead of issues. "This is what you want to cover. This is what you live for!" he chided, adding that voters' concerns are "not going to be in the news coverage tonight because you don't care about it."

But as Clinton understands perfectly, now the "news coverage" is once again about his latest outburst. Even his advisers admit that some of "his criticism of Mr. Obama" are "choreographed" with Hillary's campaign. It has worked well every week since the race began in Iowa. Now the "news coverage" is not about Obama's new speech -- which is literally breaking records in public viewership. It's not about John Edwards' stimulus plan -- which has driven the economic policy debate since he unveiled a populist proposal weeks before any other candidate. Come to think of it, the news isn't about that other candidate for president, either. It's all about Bill Clinton's attacks. And as he said, that's a bad thing. Except for the frontrunner in this race.