Ex-president here in campaign blitz

Bill Clinton is on the move.

Scheduled to stop briefly in Chicago for a private fundraiser Tuesday night, the former president will make a public appearance in downstate Edwardsville this morning before flying to campaign stops in Oklahoma at noon and in Denver tonight.

What will he say and how will he say it at those destinations?

With less than a week remaining until Super Tuesday voting in more than 20 states, Hillary Clinton's organization faces the question of how to best utilize the former president on the campaign trail.

That strategic issue grew in importance after the former president drew broad criticism for his remarks concerning Barack Obama in the days leading up to last week's Democratic primary in South Carolina.

Pundits from left and right suggest that Bill Clinton hurt his wife's campaign by verbally challenging Obama before the balloting and noting after Obama carried the state that Jesse Jackson, too, won the South Carolina primary -- a remark some observers interpreted as racially coded.

Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne quoted one Clinton "veteran" as saying of the former president's South Carolina role: "She was moving, and then he got in the way."

Chris Foreman, a University of Maryland public policy professor, said in a phone interview Tuesday that Hillary Clinton faces a delicate situation.

"This guy is on a pedestal," Foreman said of Obama, but her husband, he added, cannot be perceived as leading the charge to topple him.

"She needs to try to rein him in," Foreman said, "because he complicates this."

Kevin Lampe, a Chicago-based Democratic strategist, said that after the South Carolina fallout, the Clinton campaign needs to adjust.

"He needs to be acting more presidential," Lampe said. "He needs to elevate the discussion on why she's the best person for the job."

But that, says the Clinton campaign, is precisely what the former president has been trying to do.

"Obviously, we disagree," said Clinton campaign spokeswoman Valerie Alexander of criticism aimed at Bill Clinton in South Carolina.

The Clinton camp is not alone in that assessment.

Paul Green, director of the Institute for Politics at Roosevelt University Chicago/Schaumburg said the former president neither lost his temper nor said anything about Obama that was out of line in the context of a hard-fought presidential campaign.

Citing what he calls "unbelievably favorable press coverage" for Obama, Green said the Clinton camp has no choice but to wage its own offensive against the Illinois junior senator.

Green said the Clinton campaign went overboard in characterizing Obama's remarks about Republicans being the "party of ideas" over the last decade. But, he said, the Clinton campaign is in a bind because "Obama has almost total freedom to attack Bill and Hillary while they're on eggshells trying to attack him. It's all part of a brilliant campaign by David Axelrod."

Foreman, though, said the former president, for his wife's benefit, needs to assume a more reserved role.

"Bill Clinton is an incredibly gifted guy, but personal discipline is not his strong suit. He needs to have a very, very disciplined message." Foreman said. "He needs to be sort of this alpha male echo chamber for what his wife says. When she says 'X' about her qualifications or policies, then he needs to amplify that in a way he's good at, without stepping on her identity. But that requires a kind of discipline that's difficult for him. He can't just stand up and do these riffs in front of crowds."

Maybe even the former president agrees. Reporting on his New Jersey campaign stop Tuesday afternoon, the New York Times called him a "kinder, gentler Bill Clinton."

The campaign, Alexander said, has no plans to alter the former president's role.

"Our belief is that that he has been and will continue to be a tremendous asset for our campaign," she said. "He knows exactly the kind of president she will be."