Clinton campaign playing it safe with Bill

LANCASTER, Ohio — The long campaign has taken some of the fight out of the Big Dog.

Bill Clinton is dutifully traveling from state to state and small town to small town on behalf of his wife's presidential candidacy.

He's heading to Rhode Island on Thursday. From there, he may head back to some of the lesser-known dots on Ohio's map, probably Marion or Mansfield.

But the growling and snapping Bill Clinton the nation saw before the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries has been muzzled and leashed. He is being kept as far from the news media as possible to prevent any more of the red-faced, finger-wagging tirades and freelance political commentary that polls say cost Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton a lot of support, particularly among black voters.

"The Clinton campaign is sending Bill to safe places, to small cities where a visit by a former president is a really big deal," said Darrell West, a professor of political science at Brown University in Providence, R.I.

So what audiences in places like Lancaster, a working-class town of 33,000 about 30 miles southeast of Columbus, Ohio, are seeing is a subdued and substantive former president going on at length about Iraq, health care, education, job creation and what he portrays as the multiple sins of the Bush administration. What he lacks in passion he makes up for in sheer volume of words.

Instead of waxing nostalgic about his years in power or highlighting his own accomplishments, Clinton now peppers his remarks with phrases like "Hillary wanted me to tell you" and "Hillary has a plan for that." He is as humble as he is capable of being about his own role.

"You know, I'm a little out of practice at this political stuff," he said at the beginning of his remarks on Monday night. "Every election time I feel like the old horse they drag out and lead around the track one more time."

Bill Clinton's latest, less-voluble incarnation was the result of deliberations within the Clinton camp during the last days of the South Carolina primary race, where Bill Clinton had taken on his most publicly aggressive role to date against his wife's Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama.

While Bill Clinton was drawing good-size crowds in South Carolina and Clinton aides at times felt he had Obama on the defensive, Bill Clinton's campaigning seemed to be backfiring, several advisers concluded. As a result, they decided that in Ohio and Texas, he would focus solely on describing his wife's record as first lady and senator and would share personal anecdotes that might humanize her more.

According to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, only 22 percent of respondents said they were more likely to vote for Hillary Clinton because of Bill Clinton, while an equal number said they were less likely to support her because of him. In December, 44 percent said they were more likely to vote for her because of him, while only 7 percent said they were less likely.

Bill Clinton's favorability numbers have fallen as well. Last summer, 51 percent of poll respondents said they had a favorable view of Bill Clinton, while 32 percent said their opinion was unfavorable. By early February of this year, the numbers were 46 to 39.

Today, Clinton is largely sent to places where national and big-city media don't often go, or to court groups already inclined to back his wife.

On Sunday, Clinton visited the Springfield, Ohio, YMCA, where about 700 people gathered, then went to Bowling Green Community Center and Lima High School.

On Monday, about 1,500 people came to see Clinton at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio. After stops in Texas on Tuesday and today, Clinton is to head Thursday to Smithfield, R.I.

Rhode Island, which holds a primary Tuesday, is regarded as friendly territory for the Clintons — Hillary Clinton made two stops there Sunday and daughter Chelsea is expected back this weekend.

But the national media are focusing on Texas and Ohio, which vote the same day. Should Hillary Clinton lose those but win Rhode Island, it's hardly likely to be seen as the victory that saves her campaign. So why waste Bill there?

Look at it this way, suggested West: Should Hillary Clinton survive the Tuesday contests, she'll be engaged in a dogged struggle for every convention delegate, so she has to send Bill where the delegates are.

"Rhode Island has a lot of constituencies that are usually pro-Clinton," West said, so it offers an easy way to pick up some delegates.

That's also why Bill Clinton is expected to head back to smaller Ohio venues later this week. The appearance of a former president in places such as Marion and Mansfield could get voters excited and give them fresh incentive to vote for his wife.