The New York Times works over the obvious — the Hillary Clinton campaign sees, on balance, a political benefit from using Bill Clinton to aggressively challenge Barack Obama. I’m not so sure I agree with the expert quoted that Bill Clinton temper sightings were rare things in years past.

Yet some Democrats and political analysts see downsides in Mr. Clinton’s outsize role. Given his stature, the former president is potentially sowing deep divisions within a party that until now has been remarkably enthusiastic and unified about the 2008 election. He dispensed this week with any pretense that he was above it all.

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“Bill Clinton seems to not be in his traditional mode,” said Jack Bass, an authority on Southern politics at the College of Charleston, who has observed Mr. Clinton for more than 30 years. “I’ve just never seen these negative emotions in public before. I know he has a temper, but this confrontational attitude with journalists, and the anger itself, is surprising to me.”

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports on how Bill Clinton’s remarks have hurt his standing in the black community.

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