Rolling the dice less than one month before the Iowa caucuses, 68-year-old Democratic front-runner former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton chose to put her husband on the campaign trail. With the primaries and nomination all but locked up, Hillary didn’t need the notoriety that comes with putting former President Bill Clinton back in the limelight. Managing her campaign without him, Hillary’s well ahead of Vermont’s independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, beating him by over 20% among likely Democratic voters. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley barely registers at the polls, continuing his campaign for only free publicity. Letting Bill go on the campaign trail offers the GOP the red meat needed to galvanize more GOP voters ahead of the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. Bill isn’t likely to respond to GOP front-runner, real estate mogul Donald Trump’s personal attacks
Calling Trump a chauvinist on the campaign trail, Hillary opened up a can-of- worms, sending her husband on the campaign trail. Raising over $55 million in Q4, Hillary’s well above her fund raising goals, not needing the former president to build up her campaign war chest. Trump responded calling Bill “sexist,” “one of the greatest women abusers of all time,” linking Hillary’s issue-driven campaign to Bill’s past peccadilloes. While Bill’s popular with Democratic voters, he’s a lightening rod for the GOP, potentially turning off independent voters for Hillary. “They have to choose a nominee and we have a primary to win,” said Bill at a popular New Hampshire restaurant, refusing to mix it up with Trump. With Trump running against 13 other GOP candidates, he still finds time to take swipes at Hillary, the one most voters believe will win the Democratic nomination.
Hillary’s main argument in 2016 campaign has to do with her vast government experience as former First Lady, U.S. Senator from New York, and, more recently, Secretary of State. “I do not believe in the my lifetime has anybody run for this job at a moment of great importance who was better qualified by knowledge, experience and temperament to do what needs to be done now,” said Bill, taking a veiled swipe at Trump raising the “temperament” issue. Bill argues that Hillary’s the best qualified and most experienced candidate running for president. Her vast foreign policy knowledge led her to back the Oct. 11, 2002 Iraq War Authorization as a U.S. Senator from New York and, as Secretary of State Aug. 24, 2011 toppling Libyan Col. Muammar Gaddafi. Turmp has pointed out that both foreign policy decisions resulted in Mideast chaos and the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS].
Bill wants voters to trust him about Hillary’s “knowledge-and-experience,” when the record shows some serious foreign policy blunders. She urged President Barack Obama Sept. 3, 2013 to bomb Syria, setting up a “no-fly zone,” something NATO’s “LANDCOM” Lt. Gen. John Nicholson ruled out because of risks of triggering a war with Russia. Before leaving the State Department Feb. 1, 2013, Hillary strongly urged, against Pentagon’s advice, creating a no-fly zone in Syria. “A no-fly zone is a resource intensive undertaking . . . That’s not something we’re looking at right now in this context,” said Nicholson, Nov. 24, 2014. When it comes to so-called “knowledge-and-experience,” Hilary backed the Saudi proxy war to topple the Shiite government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, pitting the U.S. directly against Russian President Vladimir Putin, a long-term Syrain ally.
Speaking in New Hampshire, former President Clinton can’t possibly touch Trump’s charges of abusing women. “I think it is the plan that offers the best chance to have the most rapid movement to broadly shared prosperity,” Bill told his New Hampshire, offering no specifics of how, if at all, Hillary’s policies would differ from President Barack Obama. Trump, and other GOP candidates, has argued that a Hillary presidency would be an extension of the Obama policy. Since Obama’s presidency has been riddled with partisan gridlock, it’s difficult to see how Hillary’s policy would be any different, especially because Hillary called Republicans her “enemy” at the Nov. 9, 2015 CNN debate. If she becomes president, there’s little chance of her getting along with a Republican House and Senate. Hillary’s vast experience won’t overcome her public hate of Republicans.
Putting Bill on the campaign trail comes with a price for Hillary’s campaign, especially given she has no real opposition in the Democratic primaries. Dragging Bill into the fray gives the GOP red meat, especially front-runner Donald Trump who won’t hesitate to drag the former president’s sordid sexual history into the campaign. However much nostalgia Democrats have for the former president, Hillary risks exposing her campaign to more dust ups with Trump. Waging a campaign against many fronts, Trump’s battling the GOP establishment to win the nomination. Dragging Bill into the fray only helps his campaign, keeping him in the headlines. Breaking fund raising records for the fourth quarter, Hillary doesn’t need Bill to raise money. When you weigh out the pros-and-cons, Hillary’s better off going it alone, without her husband’s past baggage at campaign events.
