To me, the endorsement doesn't add much because I would expect it. Now if a past President endorsed a candidate from the OTHER party, that would be a huge statement.

Conservative who misses Bill Clinton. Greatest orator ever...**without** a teleprompter!!

And he was the son of a down-on-luck single mother in the middle of nowhere. He's the American Dream made flesh.

Yes, Bush is the most recent Republican President still alive, and I'm sure had Reagan been around he'd be endorsing Romney. Nonetheless, I think it either says a lot about Clinton to keep on with politics well beyond the years he had to (and trust me, from hearing him talking, he knows much, much more than he has to) or it says a lot about Bush in his essential disappearance from the political world. Shouldn't it be an unwritten responsibility of past Presidents to keep up and support coming politicians? Isn't the future supposed to be every President's responsibility and not just certain ones? That's what Bush claimed he was working toward, anyway.

Several past presidents have removed themselves from politics once they finished their terms. I'd say Clinton is more an exception than a rule.

And I guess I should say removed themselves from the spot light.

Yeah, but there's the additional angle that Hillary is still SecState and a frontrunner for 2016.

That is in my thoughts as well

I agree that Hillary probably has something to do with it, but every President raves about the future and the impact that they plan to have, but they never seem to follow through in the future and that bugs me. Maybe it's because I'm 16 and I would like to know what impact Clinton and Bush had on the future...

Bush only disappeared from the political world because nobody would want him and he could only damage other republicans by showing his support.

Disappearing from the political world does not mean no longer having an impact on the world as a whole. Ford and Carter both were heavily involved with habitat for humanity and continued to make a difference. Ford just didn't get in the political spotlight. Bush the first (Shrubs dad) continies to be involved behind the scenes. There is more than one way to male a difference and thay can be by using your influence without making every move a public political one. Clinton is only so visible because of Hillary, not because he actually wants to make a difference.

I agree with everything you said except your last statement. I think he's in it because it's a way of life for him and he wants to be. Hillary is only part of it.

OK, I can grant that. But the key is he is a political creature. It isn't about wanting to make the world a better place as much as the politics themselves.

THM - "To me, the endorsement doesn't add much because I would expect it. Now if a past President endorsed a candidate from the OTHER party, that would be a huge statement. "

+1

John Tyler endorsed the Confederacy during the Civil War, but other than that, I can't think of another President that supported any opposite party at all.

When a former President endorses a candidate before the primary, it can carry weight. Then he is choosing amongst several of his parties potential candidates.