Bill urged Hillary Clinton to run against Obama, new book says

A new book alleges that former President Bill Clinton referred last year to current President Barack Obama as an "amateur" while also egging on his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to campaign against the incumbent Chief Executive. Entitled 'The Amateur' and published by Regnery Publishing, Edward Klein's as yet unreleased new book quotes the affable Bill Clinton as telling Hillary "The country needs you!," according to a report in the New York Post. Furthermore, said the two-term Arkansas native, "The economy's a mess, it's dead flat. America has lost its Triple-A rating...You know better than Obama does."

Former President Clinton, who successfully stood down impeachment over his handling of a a female aide during his administration, also reportedly called Obama "incompetent" and said "he doesn't know how to be President." Hillary Clinton has not been active in the Obama campaign her husband, and has already said that she will not serve as the country's lead diplomat in a second Obama administration.  However, Bill Clinton has been vocally supportive of Obama's re-election bid.

Speaking for Bill Clinton, Matt McKenna denounced the excerpts from Klein's book as “totally and completely false,” and called the author “a known liar.” Hillary's spokesman, Phillipe Reines, noted that the secretary of state has challenged the Klein's truthfulness in the past. White House spokesman Eric Schultz dismissed the book, saying of Klein “Nobody in their right mind would believe the nonsense in this one, especially since both Secretary Clinton and President Clinton have been loyal and supportive of the president at every turn.”

Klein is a former editor-in-chief of The New York Times Magazine and foreign news editor at Newsweek.