This week put the latest comeback in sharp relief. The CGI summit came after a recent Gallup poll put Clinton’s approval rating at 61 percent, 9 points higher than Obama’s and 16 points higher than George W. Bush’s. Obama, who once dismissed Clinton as an incrementalist president in contrast to his own “transformational” ambitions, is now being urged by many midterm-dreading Democrats to study the 1990s — history lessons Clinton remains happy to deliver.

The CGI also offered a milestone to measure the broader arc of Clinton’s post-presidency, a period now nearly a decade long. Over 10 years, Clinton and Douglas J. Band, 37, the man who has become by far his most powerful aide and among his closest confidants, have succeeded in turning the 42nd president into a global brand — one that at times seems to operate as a kind of free-floating mini-state.

The brand resides partly in the realm of good deeds, as in Clinton’s earthquake relief work in Haiti or his foundation’s efforts against AIDS in Africa. It resides in the realm of money, specifically his success in making himself worth at least tens of millions of dollars through speeches and investments after leaving the presidency deep in debt from legal bills. The brand resides partly in the realm of celebrity, as when Clinton and Band watch the World Cup in South Africa with Mick Jagger and Katie Couric in their suite. And, it goes without saying, it resides in the realm of politics, as Clinton jets off to far corners of the country to raise money and stump for Democrats.