ONAWA, Iowa - Bill Clinton's growing visibility on the campaign trail in recent days has brought star power to his wife's candidacy, but is also increasingly inviting serious criticism of his presidency from her rivals.
In the past week, the Democratic nomination fight has become more of a referendum on the Clinton years and whether Bill Clinton brought the good life to middle-class Americans or squandered eight years in compromise and scandal.
John Edwards told 9,000 Democratic activists in Des Moines on Saturday night that corruption has been building in Washington for decades, a period that conspicuously encompasses the Clinton years.
In Sioux City the day before, Barack Obama sharply criticized the Clintons' failure to overhaul healthcare, saying "they did it in the wrong way" by devising their plan in secret, making it easier for the insurance industry to label it as socialized medicine.
But Hillary Clinton is confident enough about the Clinton administration's record to make it a central theme of her campaign, boasting of the balanced budget and the economic growth, along with more obscure accomplishments such as bringing electronic medical records to the Veterans Administration.
She is also more frequently dispatching the former president as her chief surrogate on the stump, with solo appearances by Bill Clinton in Iowa last Thursday, South Carolina on Monday, and New Hampshire this Friday.
While offering generous praise, as other candidates' spouses typically do, he has also been noticeably vocal in defending her against a succession of attacks since her stumble in the Oct. 30 debate.
"Even though those boys have been getting tough on her lately, she can handle it," he told college students in South Carolina.
As Obama and Edwards call for a fundamental change in Washington politics, the Clintons often embrace the past. Bill Clinton even joked at a high school in the western Iowa town of Onawa last week that he and his wife, who recently celebrated their 32d wedding anniversary, are "artifacts."
Then he seamlessly blended the personal and wonkish into a campaign pitch.
"I'd still rather have dinner with her and talk to her and visit and agree and argue . . . than with anybody in the world," he told the audience. "Knowing what I know about the presidency and about the world we face, the challenges we face . . . if we were not married and she asked me to be here for her, I would be here campaigning for her for president of the United States today."
The latest poll suggests that two-thirds of Americans, and an even higher percentage of Democrats, approve of the way he handled his presidency, between 1993 and 2001. But he also draws right-wing enmity like no one else.
Websites peddle unflattering "Billary" T-shirts. After the last debate, the Wall Street Journal dubbed her "Hilliam Clinton" in its editorial lambasting what it called her "ability to obfuscate like her husband without his preternatural talent for it."
For most of the campaign, Bill Clinton has stayed behind the scenes, focused on fund-raising and campaign strategy, in part because of fears that he would overshadow his wife. A campaign spokesman said Bill Clinton will be spending more time on the trail as the primaries approach, but he will continue to focus on his foundation's work on global warming and health.
He is probably the most popular political figure among Iowa Democrats, said Gordon R. Fischer, a former state party chairman who is advising Obama. Yet some liberals believe that the Clinton administration wasted its opportunities to push social change - including universal healthcare and gays in the military - with political miscalculations, a focus on moderate issues such as welfare reform and free trade, and distractions such as Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky.
"Hillary has been there. They've been there and they haven't been able to do what they said they would do," said Betty Barnett, a school cook from South Sioux City, Neb., who crossed the border to see Obama in Iowa last week. "I feel a little guilty for not supporting a woman."
Of the Democratic candidates, Edwards is most sweeping in his condemnation of what he calls the corrupt political system and the Clintons' place in it. He has assailed Hillary Clinton for taking money from Washington lobbyists, points out that she is the favored candidate of Wall Street, and tells Democrats on the stump that they can't swap corporate Republicans with corporate Democrats and really reform government.
Obama has most squarely taken on the Bill Clinton legacy, telling Fox News that part of the change he represents is "generational," because "Senator Clinton and others have been fighting some of the same fights since the '60s."
Speaking at the Jefferson Jackson dinner in Des Moines on Saturday, Obama won thunderous applause when he declared, "Triangulating and poll-driven positions, because we're worried about what Mitt [Romney] or Rudy [Giuliani] might say about us, just won't do."
The concept of triangulation is a clear reference to Bill Clinton's governing strategy to stake out the middle ground between the Democrats and Republicans in Congress on issues.
When Clinton said in Iowa last week that the failed effort to overhaul healthcare in the 1990s was more his fault than his wife's, Obama testily told reporters, "My understanding is that President Clinton is not on the ballot."
Hillary Clinton's opponents have no choice but to criticize the Clinton administration, said Daron Shaw, a political scientist at the University of Texas who was a campaign adviser to President Bush in 2000 and 2004. "If you lay roses at the feet of the Clinton administration, you are basically paving the way for her coronation as his successor," Shaw said.
But Jay Carson, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton and former communications director for Bill Clinton, said the former president is so popular that candidates who attack him will be hurt. "There is no better person in your corner in the Democratic primary," he said.
Carson added that Hillary Clinton is campaigning not on a return to the 1990s, but rather what she calls the good government and strong record of her husband's administration.
In his speech in Onawa, Bill Clinton touted his wife's qualifications for the presidency, citing her work on the Senate Armed Services Committee and describing a poll that suggests she is the most popular American candidate among Canadians and Europeans.
Perhaps more important, he added a warm, personal touch to his description of the woman who has long been tagged as cold and ambitious. In addition to mentioning their anniversary, he talked about how the couple worry about terrorism whenever their daughter, Chelsea, travels by plane and even mentioned that his wife made him get a new dentist.
The crowd was star-struck, some people staying long after his speech for a chance to shake his hand before his motorcade left. "Come here Bill! Come see an old woman!" a woman in her 70s shouted from behind the rope line.
"He would be first man," said Mike Kruse, 48, of Sioux City. "How much better can it get? The package is all there."
Marcella Bombardieri can be reached at bombardieri@globe.com.
