Hillary's Secret Weapon For Rural America

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/31/politics/main3983477.shtml

(CBS) This story was written by CBSNews.com political reporter Brian Montopoli.
Until Bill Clinton came to town, the last time the citizens of Washington, Pennsylvania saw a president was nearly 50 years ago, when John F. Kennedy touched down there as part of his campaign.

The story isn't much different in South Bend, Indiana, where Clinton's visit last week had residents talking about Robert Kennedy's visit 40 years earlier.


Former President Bill Clinton gestures to the crowd as he campaigns for his wife, Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., at Dickenson College in Carlisle, Pa., Thursday, March 27, 2008. (AP)


It hasn't always been easy for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign to decide how best to deploy Mr. Clinton on the campaign trail. Some have worried that the former president could overshadow his wife, and there were also concerns that his aggressive advocacy for the former first lady could hurt more than it helped. After Mr. Clinton made comments ahead of the South Carolina primary that some found racially insensitive, analysts were talking about his tarnished legacy and asking whether he'd inadvertently given a bump to rival Barack Obama.

But in the past few weeks, the Clinton campaign seems to have settled on a consistent strategy for the former president: Keep him largely out of the national spotlight while deploying him to small cities and towns like Washington, PA and South Bend, where figures of his stature are rarely seen.

Clinton himself acknowledged his role at a recent stop in the blue-collar town of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, where he called himself the campaign's "rural hitman."

Putting Mr. Clinton to work on what he calls the "secondary circuit," while his wife works larger markets, is a smart move by the Clinton campaign, said Philadelphia-based Democratic political analyst Larry Ceisler.


FULL story at link.

[MadHound]

1. Dicey gamble, given that rural America is much more hostile to Bill than urban areas

This could very well backfire.

[pkz]

2. in WV

Karl Rove was the "rural hitman"
with the "Kerry will take your guns, take your Bibles and let gays marry"

oh gawd...if this is what the Big Dog has been delegated to do.

[JimGinPA]

3. I Heard They're Calling Him "The Hillbilly Firewall"...

Because they have have him going to more rural areas and appealing to the "good ole boy" voters with an exagerated drawl.