Can a negative be a positive for Clinton?

WASHINGTON -- Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton , pledging to stand by the first responders who loyally defend their communities, reminded firefighters yesterday of something her supporters hope voters will forget: she knows something about loyalty from the tests of her marriage.

"I'm a little experienced in staying the course, and sticking with people who stick with me," said Clinton, drawing applause and knowing chuckles from a ballroom filled with enthusiastic members of the International Association of Firefighters.

Clinton, a New York lawmaker and leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, didn't specifically mention her husband, former President Bill Clinton, the marital troubles that first surfaced during his 1992 campaign, or his affair with a 22-year-old intern.

But attendees at the firefighters' presidential forum said they believed the senator was clearly referring to her personal life.

The former first couple's marriage has shadowed Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign. Longtime anti-Clinton zealots have peppered the Internet with accusations about the former President and derisive comments about Senator Clinton's decision to stay with her husband. Some Democratic voters also worry that new revelations about the Clintons' personal lives could derail her candidacy, should she win the nomination.

But the senator, by design or not, appeared to try to turn a potential weakness into a strength yesterday, subtly underscoring her determination to stay in a marriage both partners have acknowledged has gone through difficult times. The message resonated with the audience, which gave Clinton several standing ovations during her half-hour address and loudly cheered her references to loyalty and courage during adversity.

"I'm a Hillary fan," said Belinda Herron , 52, a CPA and registered Republican from Tyler, Texas, who accompanied her firefighter husband to the event. "I admire that she stood by her husband, no matter what. It just speaks to her character."

But Herron and others fear that some voters might not separate Clinton's candidacy from her husband's impeachment trial in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, a personally painful episode for Clinton and a political crisis that divided the country.

"People hold what happened in the past against her," said Angela Cabaniss , 39, who attended the forum.

At a rally in January, Clinton repeated a voter's question about dictatorial world leaders: "What in my background equips me to deal with evil or bad men?" The remark drew hoots from the Iowa crowd, many of whom thought she might be referring to her husband, but the senator denied that was the case.

Senator Clinton's turbulent marriage has been part of her public life since the 1992 presidential campaign, when allegations surfaced that her husband had been involved with Gennifer Flowers, a woman from the Clintons' home state of Arkansas.

"I'm not sitting here -- some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette," said Clinton, defending her husband during a "60 Minutes" interview that year. "I'm sitting here because I love him, and I honor what he's been through and what we've been through together, and, you know, if that's not enough for people, then, heck, don't vote for him."

Subsequently, Clinton endured public judgments about her marriage after an investigation revealed her husband's affair with Lewinsky.

Janice Crouse , a senior fellow at the conservative Concerned Women for America, said yesterday's remarks were "clearly" aimed at married women who may have been skeptical about Senator Clinton in the past.

"She is very well aware that her harsh edges are a detriment in so many circles," said Crouse, whose organization has been critical of Clinton in the past.

The Clintons' marriage, Crouse said, "is very much a negative, but by kind of jokingly referring to her troubles, I think she's trying to minimize her troubles" with voters.

On the campaign trail, the senator frequently raises issues that some might see as weaknesses. For example, she tells audiences that she knows many people think a woman cannot win the presidency, and then explains why she believe the nation is willing to put a female in the White House.

Clinton also makes wry jokes about her failed attempt to reform the nation's healthcare system during her husband's first term, telling voters: "Believe me, I know it's difficult" to overhaul the nation's healthcare system.

Lee Miringoff , an independent pollster with the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., said Clinton is trying to humanize herself for voters and turn a potential negative into a plus.

While White House political adviser Karl Rove is known for transforming an opponent's strength into a weakness -- the way Swift Boat Veterans For Truth and their backers made Massachusetts Senator John F. Kerry's Vietnam combat record appear to be a liability -- Clinton "is taking her weaknesses and making it a positive," Miringoff said.

Aside from a recent visit to Selma, Ala., to commemorate a historic civil rights march there, Clinton has generally campaigned without her husband. But unlike former Vice President Al Gore -- who pointedly separated himself from Bill Clinton when Gore ran for president in 2000, declaring himself "my own man" -- Senator Clinton often mentions the former president, who is still popular with Democratic voters.

"She's clearly linking herself with Bill more often than before," Crouse said. "She has worked so hard in recent years to be separate form him, but it now appears to me she's bring the 'you get two for one' " theme to her campaign.