"Dump me, run for office," Bill says he once told Hillary

AMES, Iowa — Campaigning for his wife, former President Clinton says that when they were starting out he was so struck by her intellect and ability he once suggested she should just dump him and jump into her own political career.

That didn't happen, of course, and on Monday he gave an Iowa crowd his version of why it didn't.

"I thought it would be wrong for me to rob her of the chance to be what I thought she should be," Clinton said. "She laughed and said, 'First I love you and, second, I'm not going to run for anything, I'm too hardheaded.' "

The former president opened a two-day swing through Iowa on behalf of his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, packing nearly 500 people into a theater on the campus of Iowa State University.

"I thought she was the most gifted person of our generation," said Clinton, who said he told her, "You know, you really should dump me and go back home to Chicago or go to New York and take one of those offers you've got and run for office."

Dodd to Google: Defy Chinese government

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Like seven candidates before him, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd made the pilgrimage to Google on Monday in what has become a rite of passage in this presidential campaign.

But the longtime Connecticut senator brought something a little different: a challenge to the Internet company to defy the Chinese government and stop censoring information in Web searches.

"What better way to affirm Google's commitment to democracy and the free flow of information as a human right than to send this message to the country with the largest population in the world?" Dodd asked a crowd of about 100 Google employees. "When Google acts, others follow."

Dodd is one of several presidential candidates visiting California before the final weeks of campaigning in Iowa and New Hampshire. Voting in those states will start shortly after the New Year; California's presidential primary will be held Feb. 5.

Earlier, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson used a Los Angeles conference on green technology to tout his plan for energy independence.

Also

A Democratic presidential debate scheduled for Dec. 17 in Boston has been scrapped because of the earlier-than-usual Iowa caucuses, a spokeswoman for CNN, one of the event's organizers, said Monday.

Times news services