Clinton's reputation may sink his wife's presidential hopes

Published on Wednesday 24 May 2006 02:37

WHEN he ran for president, Bill Clinton's campaign stressed the advantage his wife's experience and feminist credentials would bring to the job of First Lady. But now that Hillary Clinton is preparing a presidential campaign, his time in the Oval Office is as much a handicap as an advantage.

Yesterday the New York Times devoted a 2,000-word story on its front page to the state of the Clintons' marriage. Noting, without comment, that the couple have been together for just 14 nights a month in the last two years, the paper speculated on whether or not the baggage from Mr Clinton's eight tumultuous years as president might one day sink his wife's presidential ambitions.

"There's no question that it's a complicated candidacy for a lot of voters because of the history of that relationship and what they've been through," said Leon Panetta, Mr Clinton's chief of staff from 1994 to 1997.

The couple's respective spokesmen told the paper: "She is an active senator who, like most members of Congress, has to be in Washington for part of most weeks. He is a former president running a multi-million-dollar global foundation.

"But their home is in New York, and they do everything they can to be together there or at their house in DC as often as possible - often going to great lengths to do so. When their work schedules require that they be apart, they talk all the time."

Nonetheless, the couple rarely appear in public together. In part, it is believed, this reflects a desire upon the part of the former president not to overshadow his wife.

When necessity demands they both speak from the same platform, as at the funeral of civil rights campaigner Coretta Scott King, the former president's eloquence and instinct for what an audience wants to hear eclipses his wife's more pedestrian public-speaking style. According to a Fox News poll this week, Mr Clinton enjoys a 58 per cent approval rating amongst the public while his wife's rating is a less impressive 50 per cent.

Equally, the potential for scandal is ever-present given Mr Clinton's history and proclivities. According to one friend of the Clintons: "She needs to be in her own separate orbit, so if something explodes in his world, she will have at least some space and distance to manage it."

The most recent and arguably the most enduring rumour swirling around the president concerns his relationship with Belinda Stronach, 38, a glamorous Canadian politician whom Mr Clinton first met during a golf event in 2001.

Though Canadian and New York papers have speculated on the precise nature of their relationship, Ms Stronach insists they are just good friends.

Another problem for Mrs Clinton's ambitions is the sense that her presidency would confirm the dynastic trend in American politics over 20 years, starting with George Bush senior, followed by Bill Clinton and George W Bush.

That worry - plus the fear that although Mrs Clinton remains a favourite to win the Democratic presidential nomination she would struggle to win the presidential election - leaves many Washington Democrats secretly hoping a viable alternative candidate to Mrs Clinton can be found.