Flashes of "Bill-iance" are mixed blessing for Sen. Clinton

By M.E. SPRENGELMEYER
Scripps Howard News Service
Friday, November 30, 2007

In Democratic politics, former President Bill Clinton can be like a blinding light.

Whether you consider him brilliant or not, when he's onstage he has a tendency to obscure those standing around him.

That includes his wife, N.Y. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

That could be one reason why he's mostly campaigning solo these days, saving his flashes of "Bill-iance" for small town stops in places like Muscatine, Iowa, where we found him this week.

In the back of a crowd at the local YMCA, we found an astute political analyst in big, blue overalls who explained the former president's role in his wife's campaign."She needs a P.R. man," said Albert Krise, 58, a retired Teamster truck driver and warehouseman from Cottage Grove, Iowa, who compared Hillary Clinton's speaking style to that of former Vice President Al Gore. "Gore, he was a good guy. But he didn't have 'The Mouth' on him to do the P.R. work," Krise said. "I consider him (Bill Clinton) to be a P.R. man."

So he put it to work in Muscatine, and afterwards, we went outside and met Evelyn Reed, who waited in the cold just to get a glimpse of Clinton as he departed.

She called him "the best president we've had in a long time ..." But did that mean she'd caucus for his former First Lady?

Nope, Reed said. Obama is her man.

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Former Sen. John Edwards tried to stay on message Thursday, despite reporters' best efforts to draw him into the latest spat between rival Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

He visited a conference of the Iowa State Association of Counties to outline what he calls a "New Partnership with Local Communities."

But that plan is, shall we say, not so sexy.

So afterwards, reporters asked Edwards about this week's installment of the Obama-Clinton soap opera -- a spat over health care reform plans.

Edwards addressed it briefly. But reporters demanded more, until someone finally asked Edwards if he worried that he could be hurt -- i.e., forgotten -- by all the attention that keeps going to the Obama vs. Clinton struggle. "You guys want me to be a political consultant, don't you?" Edwards said with a smile. "What I think is most important for me is to stay focused on what I want to do as president. And to the extent we have policy differences, I will certainly point those out, but I'm not interested in petty bickering."

This is called: trying to appear to be above the fray.

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Edwards did address a story, first reported in the Ames Tribune, that somebody was circulating hand-written, racist fliers at Iowa State University. They slurred both Clinton and Obama and told folks: "Vote for the White Man!"

Asked if he had seen the fliers, he said: "I have not, but I heard about it, and I completely reject and denounce it."

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Last time, the biggest surprise at a CNN/YouTube presidential debate was a talking snowman asking about global warming.

This time, was it a plant?

That was the question -- and a big one -- after CNN allowed retired Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr to ask Republican presidential contenders a sternly worded question about blocking gays and lesbians from serving openly in the U.S. military.

What they didn't mention -- until an on-air mea culpa immediately after the debate -- was that Kerr, who is gay, was listed as co-chairing an advisory panel for Clinton.

Even the on-air expression of regret from host Anderson Cooper didn't stop an online backlash following an otherwise lively debate packed with mano-a-mano confrontations -- particularly between former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

At "Back Roads to the White House," where we enjoyed one of the most active live-blogging events of the year, panelist Elizabeth Blackney, host of The Media Lizzy Show on BlogTalkRadio.com, speculated that conservatives would use it to again call CNN the "Clinton News Network."

"The brouhaha may overshadow the real issue: are Republicans willing to stick to archaic rules, or join our allies -- from Israel to France -- in allowing openly gay men and women to serve?" she asked.

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The Christmas gift-shopping season coincides with the home stretch in the race for the Iowa Caucuses, Jan. 3, 2007.

And there's some interesting wagering in the contest, based on an Electronic Trading Market being conducted by the University of Iowa. They let folks "invest" in the candidates they think will win the nominations.

The graphs show Giuliani as the odds-on favorite, leading Romney. But in recent weeks there has been a surge in betting on the "Rest of Field" pick, coinciding with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's rise in the polls.

On the Democratic side, a vast majority of money remains on Clinton. But after stagnating over the summer, Obama has started to regain some betting interest.

Want a long shot? You'll get great odds picking a Republican like former Sen. Fred Thompson or Democrat Edwards. Just remember what our horse-loving Poppy used to tell us: "Bet steep and sleep in the street."

Read daily dispatches from the "Back Roads to the White House" at: http://blogs.rockymountainnews.com/denver/sprengelmeyer/