Bill Clinton: Gov. Palin is 'compelling', 'tough' and 'resiliant'

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Bill Clinton was reunited with the man who served as his White House Communications Director recently for an interview. George Stephanopoulos, now the chief political correspondent for ABC News, asked the former president for his thoughts on Sarah Palin. Clinton warned Democrats who want Gov. Palin to be the GOP presidential nominee in 2012 because they believe President Obama could defeat her in the general election that "It's always a mistake to underestimate your opponent":

“In the Republican primaries she's very popular with the conservative base. She gets more people to come out,” he told me. “And she hasn't won all of her endorsements, but she's won most of them. And you know, she's a compelling, attractive figure.”

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“I do think she’s a resilient character. And we may be entering a sort of period in politics that’s sort of fact free, where the experience in government is a negative,” he told me.

“I think she's clearly a public figure who is, who speaks well and persuasively to the people who listen to her. And she's somebody to be reckoned with,” he said. “And she's tough.”

Clinton recalled when “people were making fun of her” he read about Palin’s husband finishing the last 500 miles of Alaska’s Iron Dog race with a broken arm.

“Now, where I come from people like that. They think that's pretty good,” he said.

Columnist Mark Halperin recently wrote that of the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate, “Most of all, she is like Bill Clinton: what doesn't kill Sarah Palin makes her stronger.”

- JP