Bill Clinton drops Obama attacks

The former president
visited a college campus in Cuyahoga County on
Tuesday.

HIGHLAND HILLS, Ohio (AP) — Former President Clinton took a gentler approach in his wife’s campaign Tuesday, dropping attacks against fellow Democrat Barack Obama to promote Hillary Clinton as an agent of change with the record to turn around the country.

Clinton criticized Obama in recent weeks, and the results weren’t favorable as Hillary Clinton was soundly beaten in South Carolina.

The former president switched gears Tuesday, talking about his wife’s plans for health care, Iraq and the economy before attending a fundraiser in Cleveland, a city devastated by job losses and the foreclosure crisis.

“She wants to restore the middle class dream and give poor people a chance to work into it,” said Clinton, who entered the gymnasium at Cuyahoga Community College to the song “9 to 5” and was greeted by a cheering crowd of about 500.

When he did go on the attack, his tough words were aimed at President Bush, not Obama. He criticized Bush on the Iraq war and his foreign relations record, saying “half the world’s mad at us.”

Clinton took the same warm approach earlier Tuesday in New Jersey. He put the focus on his wife, saying she would be his favorite candidate for president even if they weren’t married.

Debbie Willis, 62, of Chagrin Falls, who disapproved of the attacks on Obama, said Clinton’s upbeat message is the one voters want to hear.

“This is the Bill Clinton I remember,” Willis said. “Positive and right on the money. I liked that he laid off Barack. That strategy is not working. He did the Republicans’ research for them.”

Obama’s name was never spoken as Clinton stuck to his wife’s initiatives, including reforming government and enforcing trade laws.

In a county in which 17,000 of its 395,000 homes are vacant — most abandoned in the subprime mortgage meltdown — he touted his wife’s goals for a moratorium on foreclosures and a $30 billion plan to negotiate with mortgage companies and keep people from losing their homes.

“That’s my case for her,” he said. “She’s a world-class change maker.”

Leroy Wilson, 48, of Bedford Heights, left unimpressed.

“It didn’t do anything for me,” Wilson said. “Everything he said Hillary was going to do — he had eight years [as president] why didn’t he do it?”

Political analysts expected Clinton to show his kinder side as the campaign approaches the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday, when 24 states hold primaries, caucuses or conventions. Ohio’s primary is March 4.

Clinton’s portrayal of Obama as a flip-flopper began after the U.S. senator from Illinois stunned Hillary Clinton in Iowa. The former president accused Obama of misrepresenting himself on the Iraq war, saying: “This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale that I have ever seen.”

“After she lost Iowa, she started to panic,” said Kenneth Warren, a political science professor at Saint Louis University. “She had invested an enormous amount of money and effort into winning this nomination and it really looked threatened. It was a desperation attempt.”

Despite the recent backlash, Warren thinks Clinton, a U.S. senator from New York, is better off with her husband’s campaigning, than without him.

“The bottom line — Clinton has helped his wife. There are still many, many more white voters and Hispanic voters combined than there are African-American voters,” Warren said. “There are voters who yearn for the return of the Clinton years, where you have peace and prosperity.”