Clinton crisscrosses country, lending energy to Democrats
WASHINGTON -- With Democrats poised to take control of Congress, the party's biggest superstar is a figure from its past.
But former president Bill Clinton wants voters to think about their future as he makes the rounds for congressional candidates in the campaign's closing days. He's looking forward to a Democratic Congress, for starters -- and perhaps another Clinton presidency, though he'll never say so on the stump.
"There is a great wave coming about because [Republicans] tried to pull America places it had never been and does not want to go," Clinton said Monday in Cortlandt, N.Y. "Our democracy has been broken profoundly in the last six years."
No politician in either party is as big a draw as Clinton, and few are as active on the national campaign trail. After making 30 campaign stops in 15 states last month, the former president planned to make as many as five stops per day in the last week before Tuesday's elections.
His pace is in stark contrast to the schedule of President Bush, who appeared at only four public rallies last month and 18 fund-raisers for GOP candidates. The contrast underscores the fact that, six years after leaving the White House, Clinton stands near the pinnacle of his popularity, while Bush's public approval ratings continue to sag.
"Any candidate in the country right now would want Bill Clinton alongside him," said Bill Carrick, a veteran Democratic consultant. "He has emerged as probably the most popular politician in America."
For Clinton, the campaign stops give him a chance to define perceptions of his presidency while engaging in the political game on behalf of the Democratic Party. Yet each visit has an unspoken message, given the fact that his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, is widely considered a presidential contender.
In that context, Clinton's moves are typical -- as savvy as they are complicated.
For Senator Clinton -- who has traveled less than some of the other 2008 presidential hopefuls, insisting that she is focused on her own shoo-in reelection campaign -- her husband is doing the political heavy lifting, building up chips that could be cashed in for a White House run.
The Clintons, however, remain a polarizing presence.
Some Republicans have cheered the former president's reemergence, arguing that his appearances could inspire conservatives who hate him . To some, Clinton evokes memories of the peaceful, booming 1990s, yet also revives the White House scandals -- including the Monica Lewinsky affair and Clinton's impeachment trial -- that incensed the right and left the nation torn and politically divided, said Chris Hull, a government professor at Georgetown University.
"On one level, this team was the team that was elected and then reelected to the White House, so how can you say Hillary is going to lose?" Hull said. "But Bill Clinton is a divisive figure. There is the possibility that Republicans could use Clinton's reemergence to mobilize their base."
Clinton's magnetism and star power offers what Democrats seem to crave: a high-energy antidote to Bush and the aggressive Republican ideology.
"You'll hear, if you vote for Democrats, they'll tax you all the way to the poor house and, on your way to the poor house, you'll meet a terrorist on every street corner, unless you happen to stumble over an illegal immigrant on your way," Clinton said at an Ohio event. "The time for name-calling and ideology has to come to an end."
According to party strategists, only one other Democrat -- freshman Senator Barack Obama of Illinois -- compares with Clinton's ability to draw a crowd on the trail.
At an event in Providence last month, Clinton's presence enticed 1,200 people to attend a fund-raising dinner on behalf of Democratic Senate candidate Sheldon Whitehouse.
Party loyalists "come away charged up, excited, on message, ready to go out and win elections," Whitehouse said. "His message is not just Bush-bashing -- it's a positive and uplifting message."
Clinton announced his return to the rough-and-tumble of politics with a September appearance on "Fox News Sunday," where he criticized Republicans and angrily defended his administration's record of fighting terrorism.
A Clinton spokesman, Jay Carson, said the former president's sole motive in his political travels is to help elect more Democrats to Congress.
"President Clinton is deeply troubled by the direction of the country and the right-wing ideologues who have been running it for far too long," Carson said. "He's doing everything he can to try to turn that around. The first step is by electing Democrats to the House and Senate."
But with the 2008 presidential campaign just starting to heat up, it is impossible to talk about Clinton without thinking about Senator Clinton, said Michael Franc, vice president for government relations at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Given the former president's popularity -- particularly among African-Americans, the Democrats' most loyal constituency -- getting him on the trail is worth the risk of inspiring some more Republican voters, said William A. Galston of the Brookings Institution, a former Clinton aide.
"There are relatively few politicians who somehow glow in the dark, who are somehow larger than life, capable of evoking an emotional reaction," Galston said. "It's a net plus, even if the consequence is that the Republican base is a little more revved up." 