My initial thought after reading Todd Purdum’s Vanity Fair piece on Bill Clinton in which anonymous “former Clinton aides” and one unnamed “Clinton-watcher” attempt to help Purdum answer the question that Purdum found himself asking himself “again and again: What’s the matter with [Bill] Clinton?” — including what to make of the “decidedly unpresidential company” Clinton has been keeping; “No former president of the United States has ever traveled with such a fast crowd:”

Is there something new and/or substantive here? Because on first read I was distracted by all that innuendo from all those unnamed people—like (emphasis mine): “One former aide to Clinton who is still in occasional affectionate touch with him.” (Why, even Purdum’s description of one of his many anonymous sources seems to suggest something…)

There will be more to say about this, no doubt. As I type, cable news is convening all sorts of expert panels to discuss this matter.