Bill Clinton Vs. The Kennedys?

In a lengthy profile in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine, former President Bill Clinton hints that the rift between he and President Obama has healed since Mr. Obama squared-off against Hillary Clinton in last year's hotly contested primary races. But the same can't be said of Mr. Clinton's feeling for Ted Kennedy and his niece, Caroline Kennedy.  The magazine quotes people close to Bill Clinton as saying the former president still holds resentment toward the Kennedys for backing then-candidate Obama – not Hillary Clinton – in the race for the democratic nomination.  “As Clinton sees it, they say, he did so much for the Kennedys over the years that he felt they became almost family,” the article’s author, Peter Baker, writes.
Baker, a White House correspondent for The Times and a contributing writer for the magazine, adds that Clinton also hasn't forgiven Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who endorsed Obama even though Clinton appointed him to two cabinet post. The profile piece, called "The Mellowing of William Jefferson Clinton," also quotes the former president as “still being deeply wounded” by allegations that he made racially insensitive remarks during the campaign, like dismissing Obama’s South Carolina win by comparing it with Jesse Jackson’s victories there in the 1980s.
“None of them ever really took seriously the race rap,” Clinton tells Baker. “They knew it was politics."
–Troy McMullen