Bill Clinton Stumping and Simmering: Some want to rein in, others say draws attention as no one can [View All]

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Bill Clinton, Stumping and Simmering
By PATRICK HEALY
Published: January 18, 2008


(Eric Risberg/Associated Press)
Bill Clinton at a campaign stop Wednesday in Oakland.

Hillary Rodham Clinton may be the spouse running for office, but it is more Bill Clinton who appears to be feeling the heat. After weeks of complaining publicly about Barack Obama’s record, the news media’s coverage of the Democratic presidential race, or both, Mr. Clinton on Wednesday ripped into a television reporter who had asked him about a Nevada lawsuit concerning participation in the state’s caucuses this Saturday. Mr. Clinton believed the question had seemed sympathetic to Mr. Obama’s stakes in the suit, Clinton campaign officials said....

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Mr. Clinton’s temper has been an issue for him as long as he has been in public life. But it has played an unusual role during the current campaign, his face turning red in public nearly every week, often making headlines as he defends his wife and injects himself, whether or not intentionally, into her race in sometimes distracting ways.

Some Clinton advisers say the campaign is trying to rein him in somewhat, so that his outbursts become less of a factor to reporters, but his flashes of anger only seem to be growing. Last week, for instance, a clearly agitated Mr. Clinton told Dartmouth students that it was a “fairy tale” for Mr. Obama to contend that he had been consistently against the war in Iraq. And in December he said that voters supporting Mr. Obama were willing to “roll the dice” on the presidency.

“The bottom line is, his outbursts don’t help the campaign,” said James A. Thurber of American University, an analyst of the presidency and Congress. “They become an issue, and it can grow into a real problem. I think the campaign is worried about him right now.”

But some advisers say a former president at times prone to outrage can draw attention to issues as no one else can. They say Mr. Clinton’s “roll the dice” comment, made on the PBS television program “Charlie Rose,” helped focus public and media attention on Mr. Obama’s scarce experience relative to Mrs. Clinton’s, a factor that her campaign saw as contributing to her victory in the New Hampshire primary....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/us/politics/18bill.html