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NYT: In New Hampshire, Bill Clinton Finds Less Spark

In New Hampshire, Bill Clinton Finds Less Spark

DURHAM, N.H. — Is this what it would have been like had Elvis been reduced to playing Reno?

Former President Bill Clinton has been drawing sleepy and sometimes smallish crowds at big venues in the state that revived his presidential campaign in 1992. He entered to polite applause and rows of empty seats at the University of New Hampshire on Friday. Several people filed out midspeech, and the room was largely quiet as he spoke, with few interruptions for laughter or applause. He talked about his administration, his foundation work and some about his wife.

"Hillary’s got good plans," Mr. Clinton kept saying as he worked through a hoarse-voiced litany of why his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, is a "world-class change agent." He urged his audience to "caucus" on Tuesday for Mrs. Clinton, before correcting himself ("vote"). He took questions, quickly worked a rope line and left.

...

But there was a similarly listless aura at the previous stop, in Rochester. And again, on Saturday in Bow, at just the sort of high school gym that the master campaigner used to blow out. Only 175 showed up in Bow — about one-third the capacity of the room — to hear Mr. Clinton hit his bullet points on the subprime lending crisis, $100 barrels of oil and how "10 of Hillary’s fellow senators have endorsed her."

"The crowd seemed very passive," Arthur Cunningham of Bow said after the speech. "Maybe they were tired."

Since Mrs. Clinton’s performance in Iowa last week, one of the more intriguing narratives around her campaign has been the "Bill to the Rescue" conceit.

People with ties to the campaign said Mr. Clinton has been increasingly engaged in strategy, talking regularly to James Carville, one of the chief architects of his 1992 campaign. Mr. Carville said that he spoke "periodically" with Mr. Clinton and that they remained close friends.

Publicly, the former president seems determined to lower his wattage, to eliminate any hint that he might be the headliner. Mr. Clinton speaks fast, in a conversational voice, somewhat ill-suited to the large rooms that the campaign has arranged for him.

"I’m going to talk to you a little bit about Hillary," Mr. Clinton said in Durham, "and then when I’m done, I’m going to saddle back to this Democratic dinner, where I’m going to sit in the audience and clap for her."

Mr. Clinton’s practiced self-deflation on the stump reflects something of a split within the campaign over how best to use him, campaign advisers say. There is a feeling among one faction that he was overexposed in Iowa, and that his presence became a distraction.

...

Mr. Clinton managed a surprising second-place finish that year in the New Hampshire primary, behind Paul E. Tsongas. He called himself "the Comeback Kid," the news media ran with it, and the Clinton era began.

Sixteen years later, Mr. Clinton is back in New Hampshire, in the service of his wife’s hobbled campaign and extending the era.

...

Mr. Clinton’s presence is at the heart of the tricky two-step that Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has been trying with mixed success — to convince voters that it is wise to reach into the past to change the future; that these old familiar faces can convincingly sell a "new beginning."

As such, campaign advisers said, the riddle of "What to do with Bill" has perplexed Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign, just as it did Al Gore’s in 2000.

"On strategic level, I think he’s been very effective in that campaign," said Mr. Rutherford, citing behind-the-scenes contributions like making fundraising calls.

But in more public roles, Mr. Clinton’s challenge has been greater. Let Bill be Bill, and risk him outshining the candidate.

From time to time, Mr. Clinton has generated the wrong kind of attention, like when he said in Iowa that he had been against the invasion of Iraq from the beginning, a statement that did not seem to be in line with his public utterances at the time. But for the most part, his presentation is very much consistent with the campaign’s message — that Mrs. Clinton is best equipped to bring change because she has spent her entire career doing so.

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"I was leaning towards John Edwards," said Rick Lamontagne of Durham. "But after hearing the president, I’d say I’m undecided again."

"One thing I’m certain of," he added, "I wish Bill were running again."

Full article text: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/07/us/politics/07bill.html?ei=5099&en=d5ffbfbb49d2a56c&ex=1200286800&partner=TOPIXNEWS&pagewanted=print