DURHAM, N.H.—What Iowa?
Bill Clinton didn't mention Iowa, its caucuses or his wife's devastating loss there during a visit to New Hampshire, the next challenge facing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential bid. Instead, the former president tried to turn away from his hour-long speech in support of his wife's presidential bid and instead took questions from audiences -- a practice New Hampshire voters demand and he has recently shunned.
He also took a shot at reframing the argument for a second Clinton White House, given voters in Iowa decided they favored Obama and his message of change over her 35-year record.
"You need to hire a president who is a doer, who executes. ... Do you want the feeling or the fact of change? What is it that you want? What is it that you need?" Bill Clinton said at the University of New Hampshire.
"This is not about experience versus change. This is about whether you want a proven record of action. This is what it's about. If you've got the vision and you've got the plans, can you deliver?"
Hillary Rodham Clinton did the same, trying to recalibrate her campaign in New Hampshire Friday by promising to answer as many voter questions as possible in a state that could seriously wound her candidacy. Aides have cast this state as a firewall to stop any momentum Sen. Barack Obama might carry out of his win in Iowa, where voters resoundingly rejected her message of experience in favor of a charismatic newcomer.
"I told her a year ago ... we'd have a challenge winning the nomination because they've beat up on you for years and nobody else has been that way. Basically, real achievement tends to be undervalued in politics, I think," he said, a swipe at first-term Obama at an earlier event in Rochester.
Clinton stood casually, legs crossed and leaning on a podium. With a Clinton button firmly attached to his suit jacket and a speech more eased than normal, he spoke to rooms with empty seats -- something new to Clinton's campaign.
He touted his wife's accomplishments working with Republicans in the Senate. He pointed to her work on the Armed Services Committee and her work after Sept. 11's terrorist attacks. He said her record should give help voters pick her.
"Like I said, I can keep you here until tomorrow morning," Clinton said 28 minutes into his remarks in Rochester.
Clinton predicted his wife would win -- if she's nominated -- but tried to stay away from talking politics. Instead, he welcomed questions about subprime loans, low-income housing and fighting in Afghanistan.
But he stumbled a bit when New Hampshire voters -- known for their probing questions -- pressed him.
One voter asked about the Pentagon's discretionary spending. Clinton didn't want to commit his wife to any spending proposals or changes at the Department of Defense and said he wasn't sure the exact numbers.
"I didn't get in here until 4:30 this morning and if I ever did know, I forgot," Clinton said with a broad smile.
Even with little sleep, Clinton still stepped away from the podium and pulled the microphone's cord out from under stage tape.
A voter stumped him with questions about arts funding.
"I love it when somebody knows something I don't," Clinton said, leaning toward the audience to hear the question.
Yet another voter confused him at the University of New Hampshire with a question on his wife's position on capital punishment.
"Believe it or not, this is the one thing we have not talked about this year," Clinton said. "I wish I could tell you more, but it's the one thing we haven't said a word about in this election."
Another voter asked the former president what his role would be in a second Clinton White House, and how they would resolve disagreements.
"One of us would not be thinking if we never disagreed," he said to laughter. "There is only one president."
Clinton said he wouldn't get in the way of the Cabinet, National Security Council or vice president. He also said he wouldn't be a regular participant in Cabinet meetings.
He said he would prefer to keep working at his global poverty foundation.
"I have said repeatedly, I hope if she wins I will not have to give up my foundation work because I'm doing a lot of good there."
