Bill Clinton still holds rock star status in NH

By Paul Briand
When it comes to surrogates for presidential candidates, you aren’t going to do much better than Bill Clinton.

Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham can have Arizona Sen. John McCain, the former GOP presidential nominee, as his surrogate, but  it didn’t do him much good with Graham dropping out of the race recently. Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich can feature his wife and kids, but it doesn’t have the same gravitas. Hillary has Bill and that filled Exeter Town Hall to overflowing on Monday evening.

Business mogul Donald Trump can say what he wants about Bill Clinton -- and his past womanizing -- being fair game in the 2016 presidential sweepstakes. To a lot of folks, particularly those in this first-in-the-nation primary state, Bill Clinton is once and for always a rock god who’s adored.

After a morning appearance in Nashua (which was also filled to capacity) Bill Clinton came to Exeter to campaign on behalf of his wife, who really wants a win in New Hampshire.

It must have been something for people to listen to Bill Clinton, seeing him as the former president and imagining him as a possible future First Husband. It’s a concept Granite Staters are comfortable with -- Jeanne Shaheen, when she was governor, had First Husband Bill and current Gov. Maggie Hassan has First Husband Tom.

Clinton had two threads during his speech, which at times was disjointed and rambling.

His first thread was that you can’t have a growing economy unless you also have inclusive politics and an inclusive society. “Unite this country,” he said. “That’s when things happen.”

His second thread was that good things happen when his wife has involved herself.

Here’s a video clip on his view of the inclusive economy (apologies - the acoustics and sound system were terrible, and the TV lighting was pretty harsh):

On the second thread, he traced Hillary Clinton’s public life as a lawyer, as a first lady when Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas, as first lady when he was president, as a U.S. senator from New York, as a member of Clinton’s foundation, and most recently as secretary of state.

“Everywhere she went, she made something good happen,” said Clinton:

He also talked about women in the workplace, college loan debt, and the need to strengthen -- not weaken -- the Affordable Care Act:

It was Clinton, remember, in the 1992 Democratic primary who badly trailed Paul Tsongas, the U.S. senator from neighboring Massachusetts, in the Granite State. Clinton, though he finished second, finished a very strong second, earning him the accolade “the comeback kid” and giving him momentum to eventually win the nomination and, ultimately, the presidency.

He’s had a longstanding affection for the state since. And crowds yesterday showed the feeling was mutual.