Former president Bill Clinton speaks at a “Hoosier Common Sense” rally for Indiana Democratic Senate candidate Joe Donnelly, left, and Democratic Indiana gubernatorial candidate John Gregg, right, in Indianapolis, late Friday. — AP WASHINGTON — Bill Clinton is back in the game big time, serving as President Barack Obama's surrogate in chief and relying on his oratorical skill and folksy style to help Democratic candidates across the US. His high-profile role also gives him the chance to enhance his legacy as Democratic elder statesman and global humanitarian. He can build up political goodwill should his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, decide to run again for president down the road. Out of office since 2001, Clinton is proving that he retains a strong appeal with voters, especially in conservative states where Democratic candidates aren't eager to appear with Obama. The ex-president is a leading expert in the art of the political comeback — a skill the struggling Obama could use now. Also, there's this uncomfortable truth: Obama needs Clinton to generate support with white, working-class and independent voters who were drawn to Clinton and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, but who haven't warmed to Obama. “If there's one thing we've learned in this election season, by the way, it is that a few words from Bill Clinton can do a man a lot of good,” Romney joked in remarks at the Clinton Global Initiative last month, a nod to Clinton's speech at the Democratic National Convention. The Obama campaign said Saturday it was pairing Clinton with another heavyweight, rocker Bruce Springsteen, at a rally this coming Thursday in Ohio, one of the most pivotal states. In Indianapolis on Friday to boost Senate Democratic hopeful Joe Donnelly, Clinton said he hadn't expected to be so involved in the 2012 campaign. But Hillary Clinton is busy as America's chief diplomat and daughter Chelsea works for a broadcast network, he noted. “So you're stuck with me,” Clinton told the crowd. Obama and other Democrats — maybe even Clinton himself, bitter at the way his vice president, Al Gore, campaigned largely without him in 2000 — wouldn't have it any other way. Obama himself has cracked that he should appoint Clinton “secretary of explaining stuff.” The lighthearted tone and determined cooperation between Obama and Clinton is hard-won and may not end with the 2012 campaign. The bruising 2008 Democratic primary between Obama and Hillary Clinton damaged relations between the families. Obama's appointment of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, and her successes in the job, healed the relationship enough for Clinton to step in to help with Obama's re-election. If Obama has Bill Clinton to thank for a second term, one way to pay back the debt could be Obama's support for a Hillary Clinton campaign of the future. Among voters generally, Bill Clinton is more appealing than Obama. A CBS News/New York Times poll in September found 66 percent of registered voters with a favorable view of Clinton, compared with 45 percent for Obama. “He's got a way of communicating complex ideas in plain ways that no one else has,” said Greg Haas, who ran Clinton's 1992 campaign in Ohio and who is Democratic chairman in Franklin County, which includes Columbus. “No one in my lifetime. He's in a class by himself.” Clinton symbolizes good economic times for many voters, including a federal budget that was balanced under his leadership. His convention speech rebutted Romney's attacks on Obama and accused Romney of pushing an economic plan that is doomed to fail. Clinton lends Obama credibility on the issue that voters consistently name as their top concern: the economy. — AP
