Will Bill Clinton Spoil the Election for Hillary Clinton?

Entering the Democratic South Carolina Primary, many pundits and politicians took issue with the fact that that Bill Clinton was so active in the Hillary Clinton's campaigning efforts.

Well, on January 27, 2008, some of those pundits' concerns were put out on the table through the exit poll results of the South Carolina primary. And quite frankly, after analyzing the exit polls, one has to wonder if Bill Clinton is doing more damage to Hillary's campaign than he is helping?

Certainly, Bill's presence and what he represents draws in big donations, large organizations and strong political affiliations. However, his incessant attacking of Barack Obama may have countered a lot of the good he has done. Many voters were turned off by Bills accusations and "negative politics" and found it to be disparaging and detrimental to dealing with the issues.

In the exit polls, voters were asked what level of importance they felt Bill Clinton's campaigning for Hillary had on their votes. The answers they had to choose from were, "very important", "somewhat important", "not too important", and "not important at all".

The results from the CNN Exit Polls were as followed:

Very Important - 26%

Somewhat Important - 31%

Not Too Important - 21%

Not Important At All - 19%

Important - 58%

Not Important - 39%

Of the 26% who found Bill Clinton's campaigning to be very important, 46% of them voted in favor of Hillary Clinton, which was more than any other candidate for that category was.

However, of the remaining 74% who thought that Bill's campaigning was "somewhat important", "not too important", or "not important at all", the overwhelming majority was in favor of Barack Obama, with John Edwards coming second.

With three-quarters of the South Carolina voters feeling that Bill's campaigning is less some degree less than "very important" and with the majority of them voting in favor Obama, should Bill really be out there doing Hillary's work? Especially, playing the "bad cop" role as many people have suggested that he is.