Obama's Designated Liar

William Jefferson Blythe Clinton III.

After Barack Obama won the White House, he and his aides wrestled for weeks over what to do about Bill Clinton if his wife joined the administration. They worried that the irrepressible former president might overshadow Hillary Rodham Clinton, or even Obama himself. That didn't happen. Now, 18 months later, he has become indispensable in a way the new president probably did not anticipate.

Clinton has become the "Michael Clayton" of the Obama White House, a roving, always on-call fixer who lends his political skills to help Obama and the Democrats in tough situations. Clinton is campaigning and raising money in places where Obama is less (or less than) welcome. And, as was revealed Friday, he has been an intermediary on sensitive, off-the-grid conversations with candidates such as Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), whom he tried -- on behalf of the White House -- to talk out of running for the Senate.

What amazes me (but shouldn't) is not just how quickly the mainstream news media have swallowed the Obama/Sestak myth, but how eagerly they have constructed an entire narrative to support it.