Did Bubba anger some Dem voters with his "fairy tale" remark?
>Analysis: Bill Clinton role scrutinized
By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jan 10, 2008
WASHINGTON - Former President Clinton has become a central player in his wife's presidential campaign. Yet as Hillary Rodham Clinton seeks to build upon her New Hampshire comeback momentum, that role is evolving and coming under new scrutiny.
His recent sharp comments about chief rival Barack Obama, including accusing the Illinois senator of engaging in a "fairy tale" on Iraq, could alienate some Democratic voters. However his popularity among Democrats remains high, a blessing that could cut both ways.
In the days leading up to Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, the former president turned up the heat in criticizing Obama, accusing him of lacking experience and of overstating his earlier public opposition to the Iraq war.
Such attack tactics usually are left to surrogates in a campaign, or to a vice presidential candidate once party nominees are selected.
At the same time, Bill Clinton's comments about his wife sometimes seem at odds with her efforts to cast herself as an agent of both experience and change.
As he stumped for her Sunday night, the former president said, "We can't be a new story." He went on to suggest that he couldn't make his wife more like Obama. "I can't make her younger, taller, male. There's a lot I can't do."
The chemistry between the former first couple has seemed a little awkward of late as he stands behind her at rallies, sometimes looking out of place. Still, in her victory comments on Tuesday night, she called him and their daughter Chelsea the two most important people in her life.
The former president is expected to continue to play an active role in his wife's campaign as it moves toward contests in Nevada next week and South Carolina on Jan. 26, and on to "Super Tuesday" on Feb. 5 when 21 states vote.
With so many states in play at once, visits by candidate spouses "become more important than ever," said Democratic strategist Paul Begala, a longtime adviser to Bill Clinton.
Yet among some Democrats, his high-profile presence is troublesome. And some fear that if he becomes too critical of Obama it could backfire.
"One head needs to roll more than any other: Bill's," former Clinton consultant Dick Morris wrote in an opinion piece in Wednesday editions of The Hill newspaper. "His role in the campaign has been destructive from the moment he took the public stage on Hillary's behalf."
On Monday night, the former president went to Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. — an area where Obama was surging — and accused Obama of misrepresenting himself on the Iraq war.
"Former President Clinton has continued to mischaracterize my record on this and we're going to have to call him on it," Obama responded on Wednesday. "I opposed this war from the start," he told National Public Radio.
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EDITOR'S NOTE — Tom Raum has covered Washington for The Associated Press since 1973, including five presidencies. |
