Renaissance

Bill Clinton's Moment in the Spotlight

Stepping out of the shadows to campaign for Obama.

As the neck-and-neck midterm elections approach, Bill Clinton appears poised for quite the resurgence while pulling for President Obama and the Democrats. That’s the argument, at least, in Howard Fineman’s latest Newsweek piece. Clinton’s spokesman Matt McKenna agrees, saying we should “expect to see him out quite a bit.” Such participation from the former president would be important, if not essential, for the Democrats in these politically tumultuous times. As Eric Schultz of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee explains, “Bill Clinton is, at this point, a sympathetic story and has always been a likeable guy. But his appeal right now has to do with the fact that voters associate him with a time of prosperity. You can’t say that about either George W. Bush or, unfortunately, Barack Obama.”