Bill Clinton comes off 2016 sidelines
‘Bit player’ is taking higher profile in wife’s run for White House
Bill Clinton’s backstage role in his wife’s presidential campaign may be coming to an end.
As a critical month for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign unfolds, the former president is becoming a more visible presence on television and on the fundraising circuit. In the past two weeks, the 42nd president has headlined at least five fundraisers and delivered the keynote address at a Jefferson-Jackson party dinner in West Virginia. Last Tuesday, he appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, part of a series of interviews his office says are tied to his foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative, an effort to find solutions to world challenges.
Last year, Bill Clinton told The Denver Post that when it came to his wife’s potential political plans he was “a bit player, and whatever she wants to do is fine by me.”
Now he appears positioned to play a greater role, especially with fundraising. Hillary Clinton raised just $2 million more than Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, her chief rival, in the past quarter.
“When this is behind us, I’ll be able to do some more’’ fundraising, the former president told CNN last week, referring to the Global Initiative.
“I’m kind of like an old horse that they keep in the stable,’’ the former president told attendees at the West Virginia annual fundraising dinner.
Hillary Clinton faces a pivotal few weeks as she seeks to beat back a serious challenge from Sanders, who leads her by double digits in New Hampshire and rivals her in Iowa polls. She also hopes to clear the cloud of controversy over her use of a private email server as secretary of State.
In recent weeks, she staked out a se- ries of positions aimed at appealing more to her party’s left, including her announcement Wednesday that she opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership — a trade pact she supported while in the Obama administration.
She’ll take part in the party’s first official debate Tuesday, hold a series of town-hall-style forums and face down Republicans during a hearing Oct. 22 before a special congressional committee investigating attacks in 2012 in Benghazi, Libya. She also awaits a decision by Vice President Biden on whether he’ll seek the Democratic presidential nomination.
Bill Clinton’s re-emergence comes as Republican Jeb Bush’s campaign weighs whether to give the candidate’s brother George W. Bush a greater role.
“It’s a little bit like Rocky and Apollo Creed coming back,’’ said Steve McMahon, an unaligned Democratic strategist.
Polls show Bill Clinton remains among the most popular political figures in the USA, particularly among Democrats.
As he wades deeper into the public sphere, the big question is whether his contribution will be akin to 2008, when his rhetoric about then-senator Barack Obama may have hurt Hillary Clinton in South Carolina, or 2012, when he gave a rousing speech at the Democratic convention making the case for Obama’s re-election.