President Clinton: Senator's 'Designated Hitter'

AIKEN, S.C. — The Aiken Standard put a banner headline atop its front page yesterday morning: "Clinton coming to Aiken." But the subject of the story, and the person in the accompanying photo, was not the woman who aspires to be the 44th president. It was her husband, the 42nd president.

Bill Clinton didn't seem to mind a bit. And he had an answer for Rep. Jim Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina, an influential figure here, who has urged Mr. Clinton to "chill a little bit" when it comes to criticizing his wife's main opponent for the Democratic nomination, Senator Obama.

"I'm pretty chilled," Mr. Clinton said, sipping hot coffee at a restaurant here when he was asked about the congressman's recommendation. Of his attacks on Obama — he used words such as "fairy tale" to describe various positions taken by Obama — Mr. Clinton said, "I think it was the right thing to do."

The Washington Post's Dan Balz asked Mr. Clinton how he felt being the center of attention in the debate. "I thought it was maybe inevitable," he said.

Does he feel that the campaign is too much about him? "I'm a little unused to this," he answered with an exaggerated laugh. "I'm out of practice." He laughed again, then, surveying the breakfast in front of him, put a spoonful of grits into his mouth.

"I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes," Mr. Obama complained during Monday night's debate in Myrtle Beach, and no wonder. After Hillary Clinton's collapse in the Iowa caucuses, Bill Clinton shed his presidential dignity and decided to become his wife's designated hitter. Party elders warn that he has fueled a return of racial and gender politics that could doom the party in November. But there can be little doubt that his histrionics helped put his wife back in contention.

With varying degrees of accuracy, Mr. Clinton has made Mr. Obama look as if he were an ally of President Bush, a fan of Ronald Reagan, a supporter of the Iraq war, and a practitioner of electoral dirty tricks.

"You know," Mr. Obama complained on "Good Morning America" this week, "we've got a formidable opponent — actually two formidable opponents at this point, between Senator Clinton and President Clinton."