page_title: Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential primary campaign
section_title: Impact of Bill Clinton
hierarchical_section_title: Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential primary campaign / Caucuses and primaries 2008 / Impact of Bill Clinton
caption_attribution_description: English: Bill Clinton campaigning at Virginia Tech for Hillary Rodham Clinton during the 2008 democratic primaries Norsk bokmål: Bill Clinton driver valgkamp for Hillary Rodham Clinton på Virginia Tech under primærvalgkampen 2008.
context_page_description: Hillary Clinton won many primaries, but lost the Democratic Party nomination to Barack Obama during the 2008 United States presidential election.
context_section_description: After South Carolina, the Clinton campaign sought to find a "gentler" role for Bill Clinton, whose actions during the South Carolina campaign and earlier was suspected of having polarized the Democrat electorate and harming Hillary Clinton's standing among women, in addition to having contributed to Ted Kennedy's decision to endorse Obama. Congressman Charles Rangel, an outspoken Hillary Clinton supporter, said of Bill Clinton, "He's got to [pull back]. The focus has got to get back on Hillary. For all that he cares about his wife, this has to be her election to win, and it's become too much about his role." By two days after South Carolina, CNN's Candy Crowley reported that there was "a huge wave" of sentiment inside and outside the Clinton campaign that the former President "needs to stop."
  Bill Clinton did subsequently maintain a lower profile on the campaign, relying on standard talking points and rarely mentioning Obama by name, or if he did, praising him: "I'm not against anybody. I'm for Hillary ... If you disagree, you have another very attractive choice." Bill Clinton said that in retrospect, "Everything I have said has been factually accurate, but I think the mistake I made was to think I was a spouse just like any other spouse who could defend his candidate. I think I can promote Hillary but not defend her because I was president."
  By late February, with Hillary Clinton trailing further behind Obama, one unnamed senior adviser to her campaign said that in hindsight it had been unwise to use Bill Clinton as much as they had, as "his presence, aura and legacy caused national fatigue with the Clintons."
caption: Bill Clinton campaigning for Hillary Clinton at Virginia Tech. February 9, 2008.
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