No script for ultimate power couple
Clintons might face figuring out unique White House roles
PHILADELPHIA — When Bill Clinton walks onto the stage at the Democratic convention — on the night his wife is slated to officially accept the Democratic nomination for president — the moment will culminate the couple’s return to the highest national political stage in an unprecedented way, as no spouse of a president has previously sought the post.
If Hillary Clinton wins the election, their attempt at a second family presidency will produce obvious complications. Among them: how power would flow in a new Clinton White House, how a Vice President Tim Kaine would fit into a very crowded West Wing, whether the former president’s undisciplined nature would prolong his more orderly wife’s decision-making and how Bill Clinton’s philanthropic activities would affect the couple’s public duties.
The circumstances are fraught because of Bill Clinton himself: a man capable of offering his wife — or any president — tremendous aid but one with a history of dancing into controversy.
The most recent brush with Clinton’s problematic side came last month when the former president, in Phoenix, bounded over to a plane carrying Attorney General Loretta Lynch and struck up a conversation with the woman whose department was investigating his wife’s use of a private email server while secretary of state. Lynch later recused herself from deciding the case, and FBI agents and prosecutors determined that no criminal charges would be filed against Hillary Clinton.
The incident and the outrage that followed from Republicans served as a small reminder of the willfulness and lack of selfdiscipline that were at the root of the former president’s worst problems while in office.
For all his problems, however, Clinton also offers advantages to his wife’s campaign and administration that can far outweigh the disadvantages.
Leon Panetta, the former California congressman who served as Bill Clinton’s chief of staff and budget director, said the ex-president would be a “great asset” given his knowledge and intuition about a wide range of issues. But to get the benefit of all that requires having staff members who can keep Bill Clinton in line, he said when asked about the controversial Lynch meeting. That is to maintain Hillary Clinton’s authority — and also to prevent embarrassments.
“Like everyone else, he is who he is,” Panetta said. “He was always good with me about that — if I told him there was something he shouldn’t do because of the appearance, he would listen to me.
“You really have to learn how to use his greatest strengths and try to avoid the weaknesses as much as possible.”
A second area of tension could be competition for influence between the former president and the vice president. Both Hillary Clinton and Kaine, currently a senator from Virginia, brushed away any concerns about such conflicts on Sunday in a sideby-side interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
“Senator, you’re going to be vice president in a White House with two presidents,” anchor Scott Pelley said.
“I mean, it’s an embarrassment of riches,” Kaine replied.
Clinton said her prospective administration would be “all-hands-on-deck time.”
She cast him as one of several former presidents she would consult. “I’m also going to be relying on President (Barack) Obama,” she said. “You know, I’ve already put him on notice. I’m going to be picking up the phone. I’m going to be calling and asking for his advice. And so we’re going to put ’em all to work.”
Panetta said that when he took over as Clinton’s chief of staff he made a point of meeting with Hillary Clinton to fill her in about his activities — a gesture he said would be beneficial when dealing with her husband.
Panetta and others suggested that Bill Clinton likely would be involved in diplomatic missions abroad. That would mean travel, which would have a secondary benefit: keeping him distant from Kaine’s orbit.
The relationship between the president’s spouse and the president’s running mate makes for some fierce echoes for Clinton administration veterans of the feuding between the first lady’s office and then-Vice President Al Gore.
Roger Salazar, a California-based political consultant who worked in the White House from 1994-’99, drew a distinction between how three ambitious principals — the two Clintons and Gore — acted when in their 40s, as opposed to how the Clintons and Kaine would behave now.
Salazar also predicted that Bill Clinton might take on a smaller role than most presidential spouses, given his philanthropic activities.
Those who worked with both Clintons in the 1990s and others who have observed them suggested that Bill Clinton’s renowned ability to forge personal connections with voters and his credibility with overseas governments would be key strengths in his wife’s administration. But few know precisely how the two would proceed in such unexplored territory.
Two months ago, in what seemed an exuberant comment, Hillary Clinton said her husband would be in charge of “revitalizing the economy.” Afterward, her campaign said that role would be hers.
However the Clintons arrange their roles in the White House, Bill Clinton has secured the job of top surrogate in the campaign to get them there. His combination of policy fluency and political charm has been effective in the past among Democrats as well as independents and some Republican-leaning moderates, who are among the campaign’s targets this year.