Bill Clinton Book Hails Barack Obama's Anti-Crisis Measures

WASHINGTON: US ex-president Bill Clinton next week presents his book " Back to Work", which analyses the nation's moment of crisis and suggests ways to create jobs and stimulate competitiveness in clear support for the strategies proposed by current President Barack Obama.

Local media say with this book Obama, who faces voter disillusion and a knock-down, drag-out fight in Congress over his jobs plan, receives the support of fellow Democrat Bill Clinton (1993-2001), who at the same time criticises his mistakes.

"Back to Work", published by Knopf, goes on sale next Tuesday.

The New York Times recalled Saturday in an article that during a sumptuous private party last month celebrating his 65th birthday, Clinton said he intends to help Obama but that, in his opinion, "he seems to have lost his narrative".

According to the daily, the book "marks a new and somewhat warmer stage in the two men's rivalry and relationship", since Obama defeated Bill Clinton's wife Hillary, now secretary of state, in the 2008 Democratic primaries.

Citing White House advisors, The New York Times said that Obama and Clinton have not had a "heart-to-heart talk" about the "ill will" between them since the 2008 campaign, though these days they do have "brief but positive meetings and shared beliefs".

Nonetheless, the Obamas still have not invited the Clintons over for dinner at the White House.

According to previous press articles, Clinton's book analyses the economic situation and generally praises the measures adopted by the Obama administration to ease the effects of the crisis, though the former president does criticise what he considers mistakes by the current resident of the White House.

One of them, Clinton says, was that he never raised the national debt ceiling in the brief legislative session of 2010 before Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives and the matter that became bogged down this year by the Republicans' unyielding attitude.

In 2010, Democrats lost control of the lower house and saw their Senate majority slashed, something that now stands in the way of getting a number of White House priorities passed.

From their minority position, Senate Republicans have managed to block Obama's $447-billion jobs plan, forcing the White House to try and get some of it approved, piece by piece. But the Republicans have also twice blocked separate elements.

Though Clinton's book is an effort to strengthen his legacy as president, it also attempts to aid the current president and his party with a view to the 2012 elections, when Obama will seek a second term.

According to observers, Clinton has a well-demonstrated talent for "economic storytelling and attracting white working-class voters", a segment of the electorate that Obama needs in order to be reelected next year.

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