How Bill Clinton Got His Groove Back [View All]

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: On the Campaign
How Bill Clinton Got His Groove Back
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Published: May 5, 2008

BEECH GROVE, Ind. – For anyone who has observed Bill Clinton over the past 20 years – witnessed his intuitive command of his audiences, his keen ability to frame an issue, the heads nodding in agreement whether he is speaking to a gymnasium crammed with voters or a newspaper editorial board– his performance this year on his wife’s behalf has been startling. The man who has been described as one of the best politicians of his generation has been portrayed -– his friends would say caricatured –- as a political buffoon: a source of constant embarrassment for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton with an unending stream of angry outbursts, impolitic observations and criticisms of Senator Barack Obama, caught on video by the off-air network reporters that follow him around.

Yet it was hard to find that Bill Clinton as he barreled his way through small communities like this one outside of Indianapolis, adapting to his self-described new role as the “designated ambassador to the smaller parts of the country” as he campaigned for Mrs. Clinton in preparation for Tuesday’s votes in Indiana and North Carolina. For whatever reason -- be it the love of the fight, the appreciation of the urgency of Mrs. Clinton’s position, the sense that perhaps the Clintons can win this thing –- the Mr. Clinton of old is back, brandishing his political skills and fighting style to small-town audiences that have probably never seen a president before, and do not begrudge him whatever political sins he might have committed this year....

After a very bad few months, Mr. Clinton seems intent on showing how this is done, and proving to the world that he can still do it....

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The truth is that some of Mr. Clinton’s best moments in 1992 were on bus tours that brought took to small towns and villages where people lined the street to see a potential future president, much the way they were lined outside the high school waiting to see him here....

There has been a lot of speculation about why Mr. Clinton has been so intense this campaign: Making up for past wrongs to his wife, an ambition to get back into the White House, resentment of Mr. Obama, a drive to have another Clinton do the things in the White House that he failed to do. All of that may well be true. But a big part of it may be that Mr. Clinton is about as competitive a politician as this nation has ever produced, and the idea of losing clearly burns his soul. More than that, though, Mr. Clinton has always been the kind of candidate who does his best when things are at their worst.

If Mrs. Clinton loses this campaign, Bill Clinton will clearly get some of the blame. And it seems indisputable that Mr. Clinton’s reputation and legacy have been tarnished. But if Mrs. Clinton pulls it out in North Carolina and Indiana on Tuesday, carried by the votes of the small communities Mr. Clinton seems intent on working until, well until the last dog dies, then the potential “first First Husband,” as he was introduced here, is going to deserve some of the credit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/us/politics/05web-nagourney.html