The Bill Clinton Effect

Has His Popularity Helped or Has He Hurt His Wife's Chances for Election?

Being the wife of a president definitely has its advantages: multimillion-dollar book advances, speaking engagement offers, a chauffeur. In the case of Senator Hillary Clinton, where President Bill Clinton maintained that his wife was part of his political team, the advantages seem to be with regard to leverage and power, experience and credibility. In the Senator's run for the presidency, she has masterfully used her stint in the U.S. Senate and her years in the White House as proof positive of her ability to be a good president. But has President Clinton's role in her campaign been a positive one, or has the former president become a liability?

Gallup conducted 123 popularity polls on Bill Clinton from 1992 to 2006, and the numbers were positive for the most part, with only 11 polls resulting in a net negative rating. Hillary Clinton, during this same period, where the popularity of Hillary Clinton was gauged, the results were negative in only seven of the 65 surveys taken. Hillary Clinton experienced her worst ratings during the Whitewater scandal, where she was alleged to have been involved in a savings and loan scandal. Bill Clinton's lowest marks came as he left office and is considered by many analysts as a result of "Clinton fatigue." According to Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post, time has "solidified" support for and opposition to the Clintons, but their overall ratings are positive and have been for the past five years.

But Bill Clinton's recent encounters with the press have come under fire for causing racial division within the Democratic Party. His attacks on the Barack Obama campaign have caused many in the Democratic Party to recoil. But many, like former Clinton advisor (and now avowed enemy), Dick Morris, say that Bill Clinton's remarks are calculated to divide along racial lines because ultimately, as black voters become polarized to the Obama camp, it will cause a white voter backlash that will favor the Clinton camp in the end and garner the Senator from New York the nomination for president.