“It’s sort of like having a rock star that’s substantive,” said Donna Shalala, who served as Clinton’s secretary of health and human services throughout his two terms in office. “He takes advantage of being a rock star to explain things to people. He’s a world-class teacher. More importantly, he’s going to attract crowds and get people excited about voting.”…
“It used to be people would say if Hillary became the nominee, which may happen in 2016, then she’d have two running mates — the vice presidential candidate and Bill,” said Democratic strategist Bob Shrum. “Well, Obama has two running mates now. He’s the first president I can think of who has two running mates, in effect.”…
“They made a ridiculous mistake,” Shrum said of the Republicans’ tactic of elevating Clinton before the convention. “They turned Bill Clinton into a neutral force because they kept praising him. They suffered from some illusion that they were going to drive a wedge between him and Obama, so they put him in an ideal position to validate the president because they had validated Clinton.”
