The (Bill) Clinton Effect

Say what you will about Bill Clinton's personal life (and I'm sure most of us have), but he is still one of, if not the, most popular Democratic figure in the United States, continuing to work since he left the presidency. He has been a very visible figure, as stated in a News Max article (www.newsmax.com)

" In April 2007, Clinton made his first visit to new United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The 45-minute meeting, called at Clinton's request, touched on a host of topics, including the continuing human tragedy in Africa, especially in the Dar fur region. The Middle East, the conflict in Iraq, and Iran's nuclear standoff with the U.N. were also on the agenda, as well as the continuing HIV/AIDS crisis".

But is he helping or hurting Hillary Clinton's efforts to get into the White house? It is mostly agreed upon that many democrats, but specifically African American voters are large supporters of President Clinton. Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison in the late 90's called Clinton "the first Black president," stating "Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas," While this might be stereotyping to a large degree, polls and studies have found that a large percentage of African Americans are very fond of the Ex-President.

Which brings us to the presidential primaries, where it is widely believed that the Clinton Campaign hopes to cash in on Bills popularity, although this might not be the case as much as they had hoped. The South Carolina Primary just wrapped up today, and Barack Obama won in, as far as primaries go, a large margin, winning %55 of the vote in a state where a large amount of the population is African American. In South Carolina, almost half of all primary voters were African America, and with exit polls showing 4 out of 5 voted for Barack Obama, who after the victory stated:

"The choice in this election is not about regions or religions or genders, it's not about rich versus poor, young versus old and it's not about black versus white. It's about the past versus the future."

But with the primary as tight as it is, it might be about all of those things, and thats why the Clinton campaign is having Bill stump for Hillary on a regular basis. Now we get to the question of is it actually good for the campaign to have him around? For this i say: yes.

The reason is say that Bill Clinton will have a positive effect on the Clinton Campaign is because Super Tuesday election day is coming up, and with both the Obama and Clinton Campaign getting low on money to spend with commercials and such, Bill Clinton is the perfect attention getter. Without having to buy time on any network, both he and Hillary will be able to be in different states, garnering different local and state news time, all the while competing against a man (Obama) who can only be one place at a time. This gives the Clinton campaign an advantage when it comes to free publicity, and as long as the Ex president stays, for the most part, on the company/campaign line, it should be a highly effective tool.

This, coupled with the fact that he is still very popular with a large segment of Democrats, has strong roots in the Southern States, and has experience to back up his talk, Bill Clinton is a very good asset to have on Hillary's Campaign.