With recent polls showing a sharp drop in his public standing, former President Bill Clinton has been ducking the limelight as he helps his wife campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In recent weeks, he has stuck to smaller venues such junior colleges and senior centers. He made a rare national appearance Monday night in an interview with Greta Van Susteren on Fox News.
“I think he’s become a liability,” said Princeton professor and presidential scholar Fred I. Greenstein. “My sense is his lack of popularity is a reflection of the fact that he has become a highly controversial figure, and that has the potential for opening up a general debate about what his roll will be in his wife’s presidency.”
A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll released last week showed 44 percent of respondents found Hillary Clinton’s marriage to Bill Clinton to be a troubling aspect of her candidacy. Last November, only 33 percent of those surveyed were bothered by his presence. The same poll gave Bill Clinton a 45 percent negative rating, the highest he has received in the survey in seven years.
Bill Clinton also took a hit in a Gallup poll taken between the end of January and early February — just after the South Carolina primary. That survey showed that his favorability rating had dropped by six points, to 50 percent, since October 2007. In March 2007, Clinton’s favorability rating was 60 percent, according to Gallup, and it had been above 50 percent since 2001.
Presidential scholars believe Bill Clinton’s image was badly damaged by the Jan. 26 contest in South Carolina, in which Barack Obama trounced Hillary Clinton with 55 percent of the vote to her 27 percent.
Bill Clinton was largely blamed for trying to paint Obama as a black candidate. He compared Obama’s win to the primary victories in South Carolina by Jesse Jackson, who was never considered a serious contender for the nomination. More than half the electorate in South Carolina is black.
“If I were to guess, he has taken a hit among the African-American community,” Vanderbilt University professor and presidential scholar John Geer said. “And the Republican mainstream has come out against him.”
Both the Gallup survey and the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll included responses from Democrats, Republicans and independents.
Political analysts agree his declining approval ratings would become more problematic for Hillary Clinton if she becomes the nominee and is seeking the support of the general electorate.
