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Hillary's not-so-secret weapon
20/02/2007 13:13 - (SA)
New York - Hillary Rodham Clinton's not-so-secret weapon - her husband, Bill - is raising cash and enlisting support for his wife's presidential bid, focusing in part on keeping black Democrats from bolting to rivals Barack Obama and John Edwards.
The former president has mostly remained in the shadows as his wife has stepped into the spotlight of her groundbreaking campaign for the 2008 presidential election, defining herself for voters who largely remember her as first lady even though she has been a US senator for six years.
Behind the scenes, however, Clinton has phoned major donors and hosted small fundraisers for business leaders and other backers.
Black vote
More important to senator Clinton is her husband's reputation as a hero in the black community - novelist Toni Morrison dubbed him "the first black president" in a 1998 essay. The New York senator will be fighting for support from a critical Democratic constituency against Obama, who is black, and Edwards, who has won praise from black leaders for his anti-poverty crusade.
The former president took her place at an annual gala in Albany, New York, honouring state black and Hispanic lawmakers. He also has reached out to black leaders in South Carolina, an early voting state in which blacks comprised 49% of the primary vote in 2004.
Bill Clinton also helped secure the backing of South Carolina state senators Robert Ford and Darrell Jackson, who had supported Edwards in 2004.
Not only is Bill Clinton considered one of the savviest politicians in decades, he remains exceedingly popular. A Gallup poll released this week found that 63% of Americans view him favourably - near his peak of 66% in 1997, just before the sex scandal involving White House intern Monica Lewinsky was revealed.
Bill staying out of spotlight
But with voters still mulling the notion of yet another Clinton presidency - and mindful of the backlash that ensued during Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, when he described the Clinton partnership as "buy one, get one free" - the former president has so far deliberately ceded the spotlight.
"Bill Clinton is part of the campaign. You cannot look at one Clinton without really being aware of the other," said Bill Moore, a political scientist at South Carolina's College of Charleston.
"It's uncharted territory, because you have a serious female candidate who's also the wife of a very divisive former president."
The Clinton touch is not always golden.
John Matthews, another South Carolina state senator, said that while the former president had reached out to him, he is not ready to commit to a candidate.
"I think they all need to be tested a little bit, and show their capacity to sustain in early primaries," Matthews said. "I've got to listen to them all a little bit more."
An independent identity
Bill Clinton also has a day job.
He oversees a $100m charitable foundation that bears his name and is scheduled to travel extensively through Africa this summer to promote the foundation's work combating HIV/Aids. During the next two months, he is completing a book on citizen activism scheduled to be published early next year.
The former president's low public profile also reflects the practical need for his wife to establish an independent identity. On the campaign trail, advisers say she must go solo - proving to voters that she has the political skills honed over two senate campaigns to win the race on her own.
But in New Hampshire recently, Mrs Clinton warmly mentioned "Bill" at nearly every turn - from joking about his love for Dunkin' Donuts to recalling his decision as president in 1998 to bomb suspected weapons sites in Iraq. She described him as a "full-time political counsellor" and promised voters they'd be seeing a lot more of him in the months to come.
Resentment against the Clintons
While analysts say Bill Clinton is indisputably an asset for his wife among most primary voters, his potential value as a general election surrogate is less clear. He's still a political lightning rod for conservatives, and the scandals that tainted his White House years - most notably the Lewinsky matter, which led to his impeachment in 1998 - remain troublesome for many voters.
"There is a lot of residual resentment among Republicans and conservatives against both Bill and Hillary Clinton, and his presence on the campaign trail would remind them of that. He would actually turn out Republicans and conservatives to vote against her in the general election," said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at California's Claremont McKenna College.
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