Lucky Hillary: President Clinton on the Bandwagon

Although not a personal fan of either Clinton, I see the former president's appearances and political "stumping" benefiting Hillary's hopes for the Oval Office. Bill Clinton draws in voters, and his appearances at fund raisers and campaign events generated additional money and attention. He off-sets the negative aspects of his wife's image. The Clintons are stronger as a team. Hillary's hard work and intelligence helped Bill Clinton earn his college degree, motivated him through lean times, and pushed him on the campaign trail when he ran for office. Now it's his turn to help his wife, and he's doing a good job in paying back some old debts.

The biggest objective indicator that Bill Clinton is helping his wife is their chief adversary, Barack Obama. During a Good Morning America interview on ABC, Mr. Obama complained, "You know the former president, who I think all of us have a lot of regard for, has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling."

On January 22nd, 2008, The New York Times reported Obama saying "he felt as if he were running against both Hillary and Bill Clinton." Obama's remarks on this topic were featured most frequently following the South Carolina based debate. The mainstream media, cable news networks, and internet blogs were all filled with clips featuring that particular exchange between Obama and Clinton. Senator Clinton accused Obama of being a slum land lord, and earned some loud booing from the audience. Barack Obama's frustration with the situation is obvious.

Overall, President Clinton's jovial "good ole boy" image, old political contacts, and ability to bond with people does more to soften his wife's hard edges than anything her campaign handlers can manage. Mrs. Clinton is personable; unfortunately, she doesn't always "translate well" on television. Joshua Green wrote about an in-depth interview with Hillary Clinton in The Atlantic back in November of 2006. Hidden on the last page is an exceptional analysis. Valid well over a year later, Mr Green surmised, "Clinton has nothing like her husband's skill at delivering a speech. She doesn't dominate the room the way he does. Her political talent is precisely the opposite-she dominates in the Senate by yielding. She has a kind of anti-talent for hitting the right cadence, and her flat, midwestern voice lends itself poorly to impassioned exposition. When she tries to increase her register, it comes out as a sort of strained honk. An odd fact of Clinton's public persona, an implicit acknowledgment of this shortcoming, is her reliance on sentimental videos to connect with her audience-essentially outsourcing the emotional element of a speech. Video presentations were a key part of both her 2000 announcement speech and her second-term nomination-acceptance speech in Buffalo this past June, where she elicited little more than pro forma applause. Afterward, when the crowd rose to its feet and the luminaries onstage poured into the audience, she herself inexplicably disappeared. It was her husband who characteristically soaked in the mass adoration and shook hands until his aides dragged him away." Check out my links for the complete article. It's long, but well worth your time.

Just this morning, the UK Telegraph's headlines screamed out "Clinton strategy revealed: Hillary campaign plot to keep Bill Clinton in the spotlight." Tim Shipman, a Telegraph reporter deployed to the election primaries in South Carolina, revealed the following comments from a figure within the Clinton camp saying, ""WJC [William Jefferson Clinton] is going to be there from now on. Bill's doing what running mates normally do; he's acting as the lightning rod. Whoever is the running mate will have to get used to the idea that he is in the lead. Just as, when she's president, whoever is her secretary of state will have to deal with the fact that Bill can just get on the phone to Gordon Brown and go to Britain and ask him to help out on an issue. That's a fact of life."

It's interesting to compare British news with American reporting, especially during an election. Because their newspapers are posted earlier than those in the United States, they contain more current information during the late evening hours. More importantly, British reporters tend to focus on the facts, avoiding lectures or talking down to their audience. In the same article, Tim Shipman notes that the Clinton aide said "They meet every night and talk things over. This is their strategy, no one else's. It's a very personal thing for them. "Forget the idea that this is hurting her. Democrats love Bill Clinton. African Americans still love Bill Clinton." Be sure to look at Sunday's UK Telegraph for additional background on Bill's role and his wife's campaign plans.

The latest Clinton strategy in the long road to the White House has been to bring their daughter, Chelsea, into the fray. After an early, unpleasant bout with media hacks who criticized her teenaged "awkwardness," it's been "hands off" (relatively speaking) for the youngest Clinton. In a notable turn of events, Chelsea was featured prominently during the Iowa caucuses. Mrs. Clinton's very own website http://www.hillaryclinton.com/ features a video of her daughter on the front page. Just this morning, Chelsea Clinton authored a fundraising plea. She writes, "I get a lot of questions from friends and people I meet about what they can do to help my mom win. Of course, I tell them that they should vote, tell their family and friends about my mom and why they support her, and volunteer if they can. But I also send them to the website and ask them to make a contribution if they can." Chelsea reports that a winning contributor will actually be able to meet her mother during a campaign stop in Los Angeles at the end of the month.

When I opened this article, I noted that I don't support either Clinton in this election bid. It's probably easier to be objective about candidates from a distant perspective. President Clinton and his wife have magnetism, and I've talked to people who actually met them. Most individuals report that while they're speaking with you, it's as if you're the most important person in the world to them. As a viewer, it's possible that Bill Clinton's charisma simply translates better on camera than his wife's. But the battle for the White House is a battle against the Clinton Team, and that includes the former president, his wife (and their daughter!)