US Election 2008 Blog

By Joan Vennochi, Boston Globe

THE NEXT time the Democrats debate, they should pull out a chair for Bill Clinton.

Wolf Blitzer asked all the candidates what they would do with Bill Clinton if they were elected president. His question was clearly posed to get Hillary Clinton to talk about her husband’s role in any future Clinton administration.

Mike Gravel, the former senator from Alaska, said he would use Clinton as a goodwill ambassador, adding, to laughter, “He can take his wife with him; she’ll still be in the Senate.”

Hillary Clinton said, “Bill Clinton, my dear husband, would be sent around the world as a roving ambassador.” There isn’t a problem we face, she added, “where we don’t need friends and allies, and he would be a tremendous help.”

At another moment, Hillary Clinton was asked whether the Clinton administration’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding gays and lesbians in the military was a mistake. She called it “a transition policy.” Then, when the candidates were asked what they would do if they had information about Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts, Clinton noted, “My husband tried to take out bin Laden.”

Her opponents also used Bill Clinton as a reference point. Senator Joe Biden of Delaware noted that he “came to your husband” to make the case for US involvement in the Balkans. When asked to give his “definition of rich,” Senator Barack Obama of Illinois referenced tax policy “back to when Clinton was in office.”

For Hillary Clinton, this could be a plus with voters who yearn for the Clinton years. But it also focuses attention on a complicated political and marital relationship — and is all about the past.

The Clintons, of all politicians, know that presidential elections are about the future. Remember the Clinton-Gore campaign song of 1992? The refrain went, “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.” It wasn’t “Yesterday.”