page_title: Post-presidency of Bill Clinton
section_title: 2008 Presidential election
hierarchical_section_title: Post-presidency of Bill Clinton / 2008 Presidential election
caption_attribution_description: Hillary Clinton Rally March 27th, 2008.
context_page_description: The post-presidency of Bill Clinton began at noon on January 20, 2001 following the end of Bill Clinton's second term as president. Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. After he left office, he continued to be active in the public sphere, touring the world, writing books, and campaigning for Democrats, including his wife, Hillary Clinton, who served as the junior US Senator from New York between 2001 and 2009 and the 67th United States Secretary of State between 2009 and 2013, on her presidential campaigns in 2008, in which she was runner-up for the Democratic nomination, and in 2016, when she lost the election to Donald Trump.
context_section_description: In the course of the 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign, Clinton vigorously advocated on behalf of his wife, Hillary Clinton, leading some observers and party members to question the appropriateness of his role in view of his status as a former president. Some felt that Clinton was overshadowing his wife in the campaign, with her presidential rival Barack Obama complaining that he sometimes did not know which Clinton he was running against. At an MSNBC debate, Republican primary candidate Mitt Romney said that he "can't imagine Bill Clinton left with nothing to do in the White House", suggesting that Clinton would be a "co-president and try and help manage the economy and help manage the world affairs".
  Top Democratic Party officials, including Congressman Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, asked Clinton to tone down his attacks on Obama following the bitterly contested Nevada caucus, suggesting that Clinton could be damaging his own political capital and global stature. Some commentators even accused the former president of "playing the race card" against Obama, who is half-black, by suggesting he would understand if South Carolina's African Americans naturally would vote for the black candidate, but rejected suggestions that America was not ready for a black President. Many felt that by alienating black voters who had once overwhelmingly supported the Clintons, Clinton had tarnished his legacy as the so-called "first black president." In particular, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) suggested that Clinton's vocal attacks on Obama could damage the former President's legacy.
  Following his wife's disappointing defeat in South Carolina, Clinton again made headlines when he appeared to undermine and racialize Obama's victory by comparing it to Jesse Jackson's failed 1984 bid for the Presidency. Some observers suggested that the controversial comments fueled Sen. Ted Kennedy's decision to endorse Sen. Obama for the Presidency. Clinton attracted further controversy with a series of attacks against Obama that many independents and former Clinton supporters felt to be unfair. While some believed the attacks might eventually pay off, others felt they would damage Hillary Clinton's presidential prospects and alienate Democratic voters in the general election. Bill Clinton defended his role in the campaign in South Carolina, disputing claims he made race a campaign issue. According to some reports, the accusations of racism hurt him personally, as blacks had long been Clinton's most loyal supporters.
  During the primary campaign, his wife's aides criticized Clinton's freelancing and deemed his office uncooperative– at one point, they complained, his people would not allow one of her people to ride on his plane to campaign stops. His aides, on the other hand, stewed over what they saw as her people's disregard for the advice of one of this generation's great political minds and bristled at surrendering control of his schedule. On the night of the Pennsylvania primary, Clinton grew playfully competitive with his wife over who had done more events or had had more impact. Governor Ed Rendell showed Clinton the county-by-county returns, while she was superstitious and rarely watched election night coverage. According to Rendell, "The president wanted to know exactly what the returns were in the places he had been and Hillary hadn't been. He kept showing Hillary, and she would laugh."
  Due to Clinton's prominent role in his wife's presidential run and his criticism of Obama, many perceived an enduring distance between the two. Clinton was asked later if he thought presidential nominee Barack Obama was qualified to be president. He replied that the Constitution sets qualifications. When pressed as to whether Obama was "ready" to be president, Clinton replied, "You could argue that no one is ready to be president." Such remarks led to apprehension that the party would be split to the detriment of Obama's election. Fears were allayed August 27, 2008 when Clinton enthusiastically endorsed Obama at th
caption: Clinton speaking at a rally for his wife at Dickinson College.
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