Hillary Clinton Campaign Keeps Bill Clinton Out Of Spotlight
New York Times: A Reined-In Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton is dutifully traveling from state to state and small town to small town on behalf of his wife's presidential candidacy. But the growling and snapping Bill Clinton the nation saw before the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries has been muzzled and leashed. He is being kept as far from the news media as possible to prevent any more of the red-faced, finger-wagging tirades and freelance political commentary that polls say cost Hillary Rodham Clinton a lot of support, particularly among black voters...
...Mr. Clinton's latest, less voluble incarnation was a result of deliberations within the Clinton camp in the last days of the South Carolina primary race, where Mr. Clinton had taken on his most publicly aggressive role to date against Mrs. Clinton's Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama.
While Mr. Clinton was drawing good-size crowds in South Carolina and Clinton aides at times felt he had Mr. Obama on the defensive, Mr. Clinton's campaigning seemed to be backfiring, several advisers concluded. As a result, they decided that in Ohio and Texas he would focus solely on describing his wife's record as first lady and senator and would share personal anecdotes that might humanize her more.
McClatchy Newspapers:
Hillary's campaign is sending Bill to "safe places, small cities"
"The Clinton campaign is sending Bill to safe places, to small cities where a visit by a former president is a really big deal," said Darrell West, a professor of political science at Brown University in Providence, R.I.
The Clinton campaign won't comment on its Bill strategy, but the numbers and the fallout from some of his public appearances earlier in the campaign suggest why West's view, one widely shared by other analysts, makes sense.
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Huffington Post | February 27, 2008 08:26 AM