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New York Times: As I Was Saying Before I Left Office (12/23/07) by Patrick Healy
Some more dubious domestic analysis from Healy denounces "the emergence of former presidents as meddlers in modern politics." But then here's his list of examples: Hoover and Roosevelt, Truman and Stevenson, Eisenhower and Nixon (and Goldwater), Johnson and Humphrey, Reagan and Bush Sr., Clinton and Gore: The former men could drive the latter to distraction, interfering with political strategy and making unhelpful comments.
A strange list: Humphrey's and Gore's political careers were essentially over by the time Johnson and Clinton left office; when the latter were offering supposedly unhelpful advice, they were presidents, not former presidents, and so would presumably have a hard time staying out of politics. With Stevenson, Nixon and Bush Sr., it seems likely that Healy is referring to the races they ran while they were vice presidents and the presidents they were serving under kept annoyingly making comments about current events. (Does anyone remember Reagan saying much of anything about politics--or anything else--after he left office?) So it appears it's Bill Clinton's continued political presence that really bugs Healy, but that wouldn't be much of a "Week in Review" piece, so instead he writes a nearly evidence-free piece about how ex-presidents are "meddlers."
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