Two Clintons one too many for some

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- In 1992, when he was running for president, Bill Clinton bragged that his brainy lawyer wife would give voters "two for the price of one." This year, Hillary Rodham Clinton's chief rival for the presidential nomination says that's precisely the problem he faces in the campaign.

As Barack Obama continued Tuesday to charge that the Clintons are ganging up to distort his record, Bill Clinton was back in one of his favorite places — the campaign trail — and clearly relishing the encore.

"I love this election," Clinton told a crowd of about 250 at the Allen Temple AME Church here, one day after a debate in which he was one of the chief topics in a heated discussion between his wife and Obama. "It's exciting."

Not all Democrats are as enthused about Clinton's unusual role in the midst of a heated Democratic primary. "It's not presidential," complained former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, who supports Obama. This week, House Democratic Whip James Clyburn advised Clinton to "chill."

State Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, officially neutral in the race, said Clinton "crossed the line" for some black voters here with his critiques of Obama, the Senate's only African-American.

"Why doesn't he go sit down?" Cobb-Hunter said of the former president in a telephone interview. "It's like he doesn't want to let go. It's kind of sad. Bless his heart. He wants to remain the center of attention."

Chief campaigner

Far from keeping the former president off the hustings, Hillary Clinton's campaign has picked up his pace. As the New York senator left South Carolina to make campaign appearances in states that will hold contests Feb. 5, her husband arrived to serve as his wife's surrogate in chief.

Even as he spoke here, at an event hastily organized overnight, aides scurried to set up a schedule that will take him to the state's coastal areas today. Hillary Clinton is not due back in South Carolina until Thursday, two days before the Democratic primary.

In Washington, she blamed the debate's fireworks on Obama, who she said is "frustrated" by losing the past two nominating contests in New Hampshire and Nevada. "He clearly came looking for a fight," she said.

Polls show Obama with a double-digit lead in South Carolina, where black voters make up more than half the electorate that will be voting in Saturday's Democratic primary.

Yet as Obama acknowledged in the debate, the man author Toni Morrison dubbed the nation's "first black president," is also enormously popular with African-Americans. In 2002, former Transportation secretary Rodney Slater dubbed Clinton a "soul brother" as he inducted him into the Black Arkansans Hall of Fame.

There's no question Clinton is a part of his wife's appeal in this state. "I love Bill," said Michael Burton, 38, a social worker, who wore a "Hillary" sticker as he waited for Clinton.

Clarence Booker, who supports Hillary Clinton, said Obama should stop complaining about the former president's efforts on behalf of his wife. "They're going to brand him a crybaby," Booker said. His wife, Linda, said she may vote for Obama but shared her husband's view. "This is a former president. People want to hear what he has to say," she said. "If he did not back up his wife, people would be talking."

Clinton, who has been pointed in his critiques of Obama, was more conciliatory here. He conceded Obama's campaign is a powerful symbol to blacks. "We understand the pride you must feel in his candidacy, and if you think that compels you to support him, we understand and honor that," he said.

"I hope I get to vote for him someday," Clinton said. Just not this year: "I think Hillary would be the better president," he said.

The former president spoke for nearly 90 minutes, touting "the person I have known since 1971" as a "world-class whiz" who helped improve education for "hundreds of thousands of kids in my home state" as Arkansas' first lady.

"I never did anything major without discussing it with her," he said.

'She'll be president'

Clinton could not resist discussing his own record and half-jokingly confessed to his nostalgia for the job. "Your plane is so cool they make movies about it," he said.

He insisted he would take no formal administration job if his wife won, though he added, "I do think I could help sell the domestic programs." Clinton said he hasn't discussed a possible role because "I am superstitious." He assured a questioner that his role would be purely advisory.

"She will be the president, not me," Clinton said. "She will be making the final decisions, not me."

Still, there were times Clinton slipped into the use of the first person plural when discussing his wife's campaign. "The last two primaries, we ran as an underdog," he said.

Clinton was asked a number of times about the "first black president" label, which prompted Obama to joke at the debate that he would have to check out Clinton's "dancing abilities before I can decide whether he's a brother."

The former president said he'd be game for a dance-off with Obama "but only if I get an age allowance."