UPDATE: Bill Clinton, on 'Charlie Rose' Show, Suggests Obama Not Ready -- Obama Responds

By: Greg Mitchell In a surprisingly frank interview with Charlie Rose on his PBS show late Friday night, former President Bill Clinton declared that his wife was not only far better prepared to be president than her chief rival Sen. Barack Obama -- "it's not close" -- but that voters who disagreed would be taking a "risk" if they picked the latter.

Repeatedly dismissive of Obama -- which could come back to haunt the Clinton campaign -- the former president at one point said that voters were, of course, free to pick someone with little experience, even "a gifted television commentator" who would have just "one year less" experience in national service than Obama. He had earlier pointed out that Obama had started to run for president just one year into his first term in the U.S. Senate.

Clinton also said, surprisingly, with a laugh, "It's a miracle she even has a chance" to win in Iowa, adding he was not just "low-balling it." He said John Edwards might well win -- which would certainly be preferable, from the Clintons' perspective, to an Obama win there. (See llink to video below.)

He praised Obama's intelligence and "sensational political skills" but repeatedly suggested that, unlike his wife and some of the other candidates, he might not be ready for the job. Asked directly about that, Clinton refused to state it bluntly, but did point out that when he was elected president in 1992 at about the same age as Obama, he was the "senior governor" in the U.S. and had worked for years on international business issues. Viewers could draw their own conclusions.

Asked if Obama was ready to be president, Clinton failed to endorse that view, saying, "Well the voters have to make up their mind." He added that "even when I was a governor and young and thought I was the best politician in the Democratic Party, I didn't run the first time. I could have."

Later he said that his friends in the Republican party had indicated that they felt his wife would be the strongest candidate, partly because she had already been "vetted" -- another subtle slap at Obama.

Also: He said the most important thing to judge was who would be "the best agent for change" not merely a "symbol for change....symbol is not as important as substance."

He also hit back at the charge that experienced politicians had helped get us into the Iraq war, saying that this was "like saying that because 100 percent of the malpractice cases are committed by doctors, the next time I need surgery I'll get a chef or a plumber to do it."

One more dig at Obama? He said that Edwards had first run for president after just a few years in the Senate, but then completed his term and went out and conducted a serious study of poverty.

"I guess I'm old fashioned," he said, in wanting a president who had actually done things for people. He said some people could "risk" taking someone who had served just a year in the Senate if they chose.

When Rose said that all this seemed to add up to Clinton hinting that people would be "rolling the dice" if they picked Obama, the former president replied: "It's less predictable, isn't it?"

If a call had gone out from his wife's campaign to pull back any critiques of Obama, her husband clearly did not get the memo.

[Obama responded on Saturday in Iowa by pointing out that Clinton himself had said in 1992 when he ran for president that a candidate can ?have the right kind of experience or the wrong kind of experience.? He also noted that he had been "involved in government for over a decade," mainly in Illinois, and had the right kind of experience to ?bring people together.? He decried "slash and burn" politics and said Americans are "not interested in politics as a blood sport.?]

Clinton attributed his wife's decline in Iowa to the press overplaying her poor answer to one debate question on driver's licenses for illegal aliens. He took another shot at the press in defending his wife in the so-called "kindergarten" attack on Obama, saying, "So he just got a few stenographers to write stories about the -- as if this kindergarten letter was serious."

He did say that he gets "tickled" watching Obama because of his attractiveness and political skills. "I like all these people," he said. "I have nothing bad to say about him or anyone else."
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Care to comment or see the video? Go to Clinton.