He knows that socialism is a failure, as do the rest of us. But unlike the rest of us, he is still committed to pursuing socialist ends through more less idealistic, and more Machiavellian means. Conservatives say there is no difference between fascism and socialism. In a fundamental sense they are correct. Both are ideologies in which the State directs outcomes to fit to a certain conformist Truth.
Fascists are realist socialists.
They understand that socialism proper will never work, because it is too destabilizing to human society. They transform civic organizations into propaganda tools. They make the capitalists their clients. All of this expresses just what Bill Clinton has been trying to do in the last two years. Just look at the tobacco deal.