Hillary Watch: Will Obama counter Hillary’s growing separation from him?

The 2016 campaign for president won’t really begin until after the 2014 mid-terms are finished. Or around that time. It wasn’t until October 22, 2006--just before the mid-terms that year--that Barack Obama, speaking on “Meet the Press,” indicated he might run for president against Hillary Clinton.

So we’re starting our “Hillary Watch” a little early in the 2016 cycle.

We have already noted several times Hillary’s efforts to separate herself from Barack Obama’s failing presidency.

Peter Nicholas of the Wall Street Journal caught yet another Hillary effort at separation from the Obama style:

Clinton recently [referred to Lyndon] Johnson, known as a supreme legislative tactician. She cited the Broadway play, "All the Way," which tells the story of his efforts to pass the [civil rights] law. "If you're going to get something done, you have to persuade," she said at [a] Colorado event.

"My husband had some really serious problems with the Congress when he was in office," she said. "They shut down the government twice. They impeached him once. So it was not the most pleasant of atmospheres. But I will say this: Bill never stopped reaching out to them." Building those relationships on Capitol Hill "is something there is no rest from," she added.

Well-known Hillary foe Dick Morris is making similar observations, but from the perspective that Hillary’s attempt at separation from Obama will damage her:

Clinton is repeating the mistake she made in 2008: targeting general election voters and ignoring the primary electorate. Back then, she supported the Iraq War until well into 2007 and voted for the Patriot Act, alienating her base.

Now, fearful of Obama's drag on a 2016 ticket, she is distancing herself from the president, obliquely criticizing him as a man who paints "a beautiful vision" but cannot follow through. This won't play well with the base. The only real argument Clinton would have against [potential presidential rival Elizabeth] Warren is inevitability: that she will win. That kind of argument [only] holds supporters for a while.

Edward Klein, author of the #1 (ahead of Hillary's book) bestseller Blood Feud: The Clintons vs. the Obamas, has said he heard from an Obama administration source who claims,

Barack, Michelle, and [closest friend, White House operative] Valerie [Jarrett,] have been talking about [running] Elizabeth Warren [against Hillary] for quite some time. Valerie has told Warren that Obama is prepared to throw a great deal of money and organizational support behind her. The Obamas believe that Warren sees things from the same ideological point of view as they do. She is a committed progressive who, like Obama, wants to transform America into a European-style democratic-socialist state.

Klein has his critics, including Business Insider’s Hunter Walker, who quotes an anonymous source saying of Klein,

This might sound hyperbolic, but there is no bigger liar in the entire world. Lying isn't even the word for it. It's some kind of sickness where every single thing you write is fabricated. Every. Single. Thing. I mean, even the photos in his book were found to be altered.

Walker adds,

there is a long history of alleged factual issues in Klein's work. As the source close to the Clintons noted, a photographer released evidence showing Klein misrepresented a salaciously cropped photo of President Clinton in his 2005 book, The Truth About Hillary.

One tends to question the authenticity of any author in Klein's position--at the receiving end of such a strong, presumably fact-backed, denunciation. But since the photo of President Clinton figures so prominently in the denunciation of Klein, check out the actual photo of Bill Clinton’s rope line kiss (here). Judge for yourself.