Clinton leading way for Obama

Ex-president seen as natural

Former President Bill Clinton campaigns for President Barack Obama on Sunday in Concord, N.H.

Former President Bill Clinton campaigns for President Barack Obama on Sunday in Concord, N.H.

Monday, November 5, 2012

— His name is not even on the ticket, but former President Bill Clinton has raced from state to state in the presidential campaign’s last weeks with the energy of a candidate on the make, attempting to collect votes for his Democratic successor in the White House, President Barack Obama.

Since his speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., in September, Clinton has been the president’s main pitchman. In the past week, he’s concentrated his effort on battleground states, including Colorado, Florida, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Virginia, where the race between Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney is extremely competitive.

“There’s nobody in America who can move a political crowd like him,” said Don Fowler, who served as the chairman of the Democratic National Committee in the 1990s. “He’s a tough, tough political fighter, and his support is directly needed.”

Clinton’s role is a big change from what it was in the 2000 election, when he mostly sat on the sidelines. After two terms in office and a bruising impeachment battle, many Americans had developed “Clinton fatigue.”

Now, Clinton is in the spotlight again, and the crowds are cheering him on.

“I don’t hear Clinton fatigue,” said former Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana. “I hear Clinton nostalgia.”

Bayh, a Democrat, called Clinton the “most effective political surrogate in America, bar none.”

Part of his appeal, Bayh said, is Clinton’s ability to reach across party lines.

“Even in a state like mine, which is more Republican, he’s tremendously popular,” Bayh said.

Tucker Eskew, a Republican political consultant who worked for the George W. Bush campaign team in 2000 and 2004 and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin in 2008, agreed.

Clinton’s efforts are “all upside,” Eskew said.

“If President Obama is sent home to Chicago, it will have nothing to do with any president other than Barack Obama,” he said. “If, on the other hand, he scrapes out a victory, he owes a lot to the figure in this country who can shape the public discussion for political gain better than anyone - Bill Clinton.”

Sending Clinton out on the campaign trail is a “desperate” move by Obama to try to appeal to undecided voters in swing states, said Doyle Webb, chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas.

“He’d rather rely on a crutch to be successful, and Bill Clinton is that crutch,” Webb said.

The Republican chairman said Obama has a more liberal vision than Clinton had when he was in office. Despite Clinton’s appeal, Webb predicted that voters will reject Obama because of his administration’s trillion-dollar deficits and stance on social issues such as abortion and gay marriage.

“The average voter is in line with the issues of the day, not the personalities,” Webb said. “It’s a net zero,” he said of Clinton’s activity. “The people he can excite will be voting for Obama anyway.”

In other races after he left the White House, Clinton’s involvement was sometimes muted.

In 2008, after then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton lost a tough presidential primary fight to Obama, Bill Clinton was used sparingly during the general election, appearing at a rally with Obama only once, about a week before the election.

There was still friction between the two men, recalled Fowler, after Bill Clinton referred to Obama’s campaign as a “fairy tale” and seemingly downplayed the significance of an Obama win in the South Carolina presidential primary, noting another black politician, Jesse Jackson, who had won the contest in 1984 and 1988.

Critics accused the ex-president of injecting race into the campaign.

The claim angered Bill Clinton “as well it should,” Fowler said. “But he’s a big boy, bigger than anyone else on the block, and he always looks to the future.”

Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty, who was Bill Clinton’s chief of staff in the White House said, “Time heals some of those raw, bruised feelings.”

McLarty said it is “natural” for Obama to call upon Bill Clinton for help, since the two men’s political outlook is “generally in the same space.”

Some, including U.S. Sen. John McCain - the Republican from Arizona who lost to Obama in 2008 - suggested that Bill Clinton is making the effort to benefit his secretary of state wife, who is widely considered an early front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 - if she wants the job.

“I would never think such an thing, and I am certainly not Machiavellian, but I am told there are some that think this may have a lot to do with 2016 and the president’s wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,” McCain said last week on a conference call with reporters.

“Of course I would never suspicion such a thing, but there are some real jerks around who think that might be the case,” he said, breaking into laughter.

In 2000, in the waning days of his presidency, Bill Clinton wasn’t asked to stump much for Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore, but he campaigned feverishly for Democratic congressional candidates who still valued his help, including Reps. John Conyers of Michigan, Charlie Rangel of New York and Mike Ross of Arkansas.

Of course, one candidate got extra attention.

During the fall campaign Bill Clinton made at least 14 appearances at campaign events for Hillary Clinton, who was elected that year as a U.S. senator from New York.

But Bill Clinton didn’t stump for Gore until the final week of the race, when he headlined get-out-the-vote rallies in New York and California, two safely Democratic states. He also headlined a rally in Pine Bluff two days before the election.

Bill Clinton’s hectic pre-election schedule on behalf of Obama this year reflects the former president’s total rehabilitation as a political leader, said Tad Devine, who was a senior adviser to Gore in 2000 and U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic nominee in 2004.

Devine recalled that the Kerry campaign “very much” wanted Bill Clinton to actively stump for the Democratic nominee, but Clinton, who had quadruple heart bypass surgery that September, was physically unable to do much legwork.

In 2000, the first presidential election after the Monica Lewinsky scandal, using Bill Clinton “was more complicated,” Devine said.

Gore, who had been Clinton’s vice president for eight years, wanted to step out of Bill Clinton’s shadow.

“There were also, frankly and bluntly, complications left over from the impeachment proceedings,” Devine said. “Voters were carrying around a lot of feelings about the president because of the scandal, that complicated things for the vice president.”

It’s a measure of Clinton’s presidency that he remains such a powerful campaign surrogate, supporters say.

Bush endorsed Romney, but has not actively campaigned for the Republican nominee.

His father, former President George H.W. Bush, endorsed Romney early on in the primary, but the 41st president hasn’t been a regular on the campaign trail in years.

While Bill Clinton spoke in prime time at this year’s Democratic National Convention, delivering a speech to millions of television viewers, neither of the Bushes spoke at the Republican National Convention.

“President Bush has been in the witness protection program throughout the entire election,” Devine said, referring to the 43rd president.

Eskew, the Republican consultant, said the Bushes haven’t hit the road for Republican candidates because their strengths lie elsewhere.

“They’re not world-class campaigners,” he said, “they’re world-class leaders.”

And Clinton?

“He was born to be on the campaign trail.”

Front Section, Pages 1 on 11/05/2012