Clinton's seasoned campaign skills help his wife
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Former President Bill Clinton has his picture taken with a young girl as he greets Iowa residents at a campaign event for his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., at Storm Lake Middle School in Storm Lake, Iowa, yesterday. According to polls, Mrs. Clinton is locked in a virtual tie with Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina in the upcoming Iowa caucus.
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CARLISLE, Iowa -- The Iowa caucuses would seem to be the perfect arena for a world-class schmoozer like Bill Clinton.
But he never had a chance to work the state's living rooms and community halls on behalf of his own nomination. In 1992, the state's popular Sen. Tom Harkin ran for president and all the other candidates effectively ceded the field to the hometown boy.
Now, the former president is making up for the chance he missed by crossing the state in a relentless effort to put his skills on the stump to work for his wife, and, they hope, his successor.
Last night, in the final stop of a day of campaigning, he offered a crowd of Iowans a Cliff Notes version of her platform and her biography trying to turn a nail-bitingly close race in her favor.
"I believe she's the best candidate I've had a chance to vote for in forty years," he said as he depicted the New York senator as the person best able to handle the uncertain challenges of the Oval Office.
In a similar effort, several weeks ago on PBS' Charlie Rose show, he suggested that the country would be taking a chance in bestowing the presidency on Sen. Barack Obama, one of her chief rivals. Last night he was more conciliatory, offering kind words for almost everyone in the Democratic field.
"I like these people, all of them; they're smart; they're honest," he said of the other candidates of his party.
But, while he never specifically mentioned the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, that fresh news offered a context for his warning that history suggests that, "Sometime in the first 12 to 18 months of the next president's term, something will happen that has not been discussed in the Iowa caucuses."
And the need to be able to respond to such unanticipated events, he argued, was part of the case for his wife's candidacy.
"Take Bush ... they didn't talk much about Osama bin Laden in the 2000 campaign; they didn't talk about Katrina."
His contention that Mrs. Clinton is the most tested and most experienced candidate among the Democrats is at the heart of her campaign and her promise that she would be the most effective agent of change. Her opponents, notably Mr. Obama, counter that experience is not an unalloyed credential, "if it's the wrong kind of experience."
Her opponents portray her as a creature of Washington culture dominated by special interests and the poison of partisanship.
Mr. Clinton offered a counter-portrait of his wife as a champion of health care and bipartisan accomplishment in the Senate, Mr. Clinton said, "I will follow her into the fire ... this is the person I know and this is what you want in a president when the going gets tough."
"No matter how tight or hot it gets," he added, "She is a rock and she will fight for you."
President Clinton's appearances were meant to invest his wife's campaign with his strong popularity among Iowa Democrats while reinforcing her argument that her experience would provide the best chance of bringing about the change that is the common mantra of the Democratic candidates.
It was an easy sale for one member of the audience of several hundred.
"I'd vote for him if he were running," said Sue Sorden, a librarian and retired teacher form Indianola, who was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned, "Hillary."
"I think it's time for a woman president," she said.
Her friend, Joyce Godwin, Indianola's library director, was there, "because he's the former president of the United States and I wanted to hear him."
Still, she said, "I'm an Edwards supporter. I caucused for him four years ago and I decided I would again, but I'd be happy with any of the top three."
Ms. Goodwin said that moments before Mr. Clinton entered the middle school gymnasium. Afterwards, she said, "He's very persuasive."
So who will she support Thursday?
"We'll see."
Earlier yesterday, in an interview with ABC News, Mrs. Clinton described the role her husband would play in a new Clinton administration that would include the unprecedented situation of a former president as First Spouse. She appeared to walk a fine line, noting that she and her advisers would turn to him for advice while making clear that he would not be some sort of co-president.
"I think he would play the role that spouses have always played for presidents," Mrs. Clinton told George Stephanopoulos, according to a transcript provided by ABC. "He will not have a formal, official role, but just as presidents rely on wives, husbands, fathers, friends of long years, he will be my close confidante and adviser as I was with him."
She said that the former president would be an asset in international relations, calling him, "the most popular person in the world."
He is perhaps the most popular person to Iowa Democrats as well, although his ability to make news at any time has sometime been a mixed blessing for the Clinton campaign, as it was several weeks ago when his statement that he had been against the Iraq war all along served as a distraction from his wife's campaign messages while reminding voters of Mrs. Clinton's controversial vote to authorize the war.
The urgency of last-minute campaigning was highlighted by new poll results that were in conflict on the exact order of the leading Democrats but in agreement in depicting an extraordinarily close race. One survey, conducted by Mason Dixon Polling & Research for MSNBC, found former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards with the support of 23 percent of likely caucus goers, Mrs. Clinton at 23 percent as well, and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., joining the virtual tie at 22 percent.
Zogby International also showed a close race but one with a narrow advantage for Mrs. Clinton. The Zogby findings were: Mrs. Clinton 31 percent; Mr. Obama 27 percent; and Mr. Edwards 24 percent.
First Published December 31, 2007 12:42 am
