Clinton Remarks Test Uneasy Alliance

By PETER NICHOLAS and LAURA MECKLER 

6-6-2012

Bill Clinton, right, joins President Barack Obama onstage for a campaign fundraiser in New York this week.

Listening to the Obama campaign's attacks on Mitt Romney's career, Bill Clinton has been dissatisfied with the message—in particular, that it demonized Mr. Romney's record as head of a private-equity firm rather than laying out clear policy differences between the candidates, according to people familiar with his critique.

As a popular ex-president with a bully pulpit all his own, Mr. Clinton isn't apt to follow campaign talking points. And he hasn't. Twice in the past week, he has veered from the Democratic party line, upsetting an Obama campaign that has few trusted surrogates able to deliver its message.

His comments—regarding Mr. Romney's record and the wisdom of rolling back the Bush tax cuts—prompted urgent phone calls to Mr. Clinton's circle from the president's re-election campaign. In both instances, the calls led Mr. Clinton to seek to clarify his comments and align his message with that of President Barack Obama, people familiar the events said.

As the 42nd president steps up his effort to win a second term for the 44th, Mr. Clinton is showing himself to be both a valuable political ally and a potential headache for President Barack Obama's disciplined campaign shop.

"Yes, the Obama campaign may or may not be happy with everything Clinton says, but that only makes Clinton's endorsement more credible,'' said Mark J. Penn, a former campaign adviser to both Bill and Hillary Clinton. "If he steps out and disagrees with Obama now and then and is not just parroting the Obama party line and is telling you what he really thinks, that makes Bill Clinton a more credible surrogate.''

In a television interview last week, Mr. Clinton said that Mr. Romney, the Republicans' presumed presidential candidate, had enjoyed a "sterling'' business career at private-equity firm Bain Capital and that Democrats shouldn't cast private equity as "bad work."

Mr. Clinton was critical of Mr. Romney's policies, but his depiction of the Bain tenure was at odds with the Obama campaign's portrait of Mr. Romney as a "corporate buyout specialist'' who made big profits while workers lost their jobs.

The Obama campaign was "upset'' with Mr. Clinton's comments and complained to Clinton advisers, according to a person familiar with the matter. This person said the objection was relayed to the former president, who purposely took a harsher tone at a trio of Obama fundraisers on Monday. At one, for instance, Mr. Clinton said Mr. Romney's policies would be "calamitous'' for the nation.

Then, on Tuesday, Mr. Clinton suggested that Congress temporarily extend all the Bush-era tax cuts when they expire at year's end. That undercut Mr. Obama's stance that he would veto a continuation of the tax cuts for the highest-income taxpayers. The Obama campaign again complained. Mr. Clinton's office issued a statement late Tuesday backtracking, after what one person people familiar with the matter described as an extended back and forth.

Mr. Clinton's belief that Mr. Obama should focus on policy differences with his Republican opponent tracks a broader argument he has been making for years—that politicians don't need to disparage one another and instead should focus on competing visions for the nation.

Summarizing Mr. Clinton's view, one of his advisers said that he wants Mr. Obama "to create a contrast, to talk about what the Romney policies will do versus what the Obama policies will do.''

An alliance between the past and current president was bound to be uneasy. The Obama campaign doesn't trust many outside surrogates to deliver its message. Often, the people making the case for the president on cable talk shows come from inner circle of the Obama campaign headquarters in Chicago—senior strategist David Axelrod and deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter, for example.

The campaign relies on just a few high-wattage surrogates, such as Govs. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and Martin O'Malley of Maryland. The small circle amplifies the importance of having an ally of Mr. Clinton's stature.

Last fall, three of Mr. Obama's top political aides—Jim Messina, Mr. Axelrod and Patrick Gaspard—visited Mr. Clinton in his Harlem office to ask for his help in the campaign and discuss his role. Mr. Clinton's advisers said that by dint of his popularity he could court the conservative Democrats and independents the Obama campaign may find hard to reach. In February, 60% of people surveyed by Gallup said Mr. Clinton would go down in history as an outstanding or above-average president.

"President Clinton has the prerogative to express his own point of view, but there's no question he is an incredibly important ally for President Obama," said Geoff Garin, a top strategist for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential run.

Mr. Clinton is proving to be a fundraising draw and is also endorsing the actions taken by Mr. Obama. In a well-publicized campaign documentary, Mr. Clinton gave a forceful interview praising Mr. Obama for ordering the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

"He took the harder and more honorable path," Mr. Clinton said in the video. "When I saw what had happened, I thought to myself, 'I hope that's the call I would have made.' "

The relationship got off to a rocky start in 2008, when Mr. Obama battled Mr. Clinton's wife for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Mr. Clinton called Mr. Obama's claims to have consistently opposed the Iraq war "the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen."

And he dismissed Mr. Obama's primary election win in South Carolina by comparing it to Jesse Jackson's 1988 victory. The comment was taken by some as an effort to diminish Mr. Obama by suggesting his appeal was based largely on race, though Mr. Clinton denied that was his intent. The latter comment proved more unhelpful to his wife than it was to Mr. Obama—showing his tendency to go off message, even then.