For ex-Pres. Clinton, Hillary brings ego check

ANALYSIS

updated 1:00 p.m. ET July 1, 2007

WASHINGTON - Love him or hate him, anybody who’s followed Bill Clinton’s career knows it’s always been about him — as in No. 1 or “me,” “my” and “I.”

Now it’s about her.

Considered by friends to be as self-absorbed as he is brilliant, the former president checks his ego at the curb this week to fly to Iowa and take a surrogate’s role in the presidential campaign of his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

Her advisers privately fret that the former president will overshadow Sen. Clinton with his unparalleled campaign skills and career-long habit of drawing attention to himself. One of her confidants, still stinging from the Monica Lewinsky affair, refers to Clinton as “Mr. Me.”

But the senator needs his help and her staff is betting that Bill Clinton is ready to be Mr. Her.

“He’s going to talk about her and she’s going to talk about the country,” campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said. “And nobody can do better than him.”

Wolfson pointed to a powerful, five-minute campaign video in which the former president outlines Sen. Clinton’s biography. Framed by a lamp’s soft yellow glow, Clinton talks about his wife’s commitment to public service, starting in law school, where they met, and continuing throughout their years in Arkansas.

“She just kept plugging away with new ideas, making progress, day in and day out,” Clinton says. “That’s the kind of leader she is.”

The video is a taste of things to come in Iowa, New Hampshire and beyond, campaign officials say.

'I wanna talk about me'
Still, a few discerning Clinton associates note that he used the words “I,” “me” and “my” 16 times in the video. They wryly observe that the taping was a model of self-control when compared with his past habits.

One friend, who refused to be identified because the couple frowns on anything close to criticism, said Clinton’s rhetorical style brings to mind the hit country song by Toby Keith, “I Wanna Talk Talk About Me.” The chorus goes like this:

“I wanna talk about me.”

“Wanna talk about I.”

“Wanna talk about No. 1, oh-my-me-my,

“What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see ... .”

This friend, and several other associates, said Clinton truly wants to promote his wife’s candidacy and is getting better at it every day. They note that former presidents — much like former chief executive officers — find it difficult to stop talking about their accomplishments and the people who benefited from their leadership.

“Remember how good he was at describing what his presidency was about?” said former White House press secretary Mike McCurry. “And yet, he wasn’t an ‘I’ person. It was more about what we’ve done — what we can do as a country.”

Clinton’s job now is to evolve from the singular “I” and collective “we” to the servile “she.”

“He’s like a great batter adjusting to pitching,” said former Clinton aide Chris Lehane. “He needs to adjust so she comes out the star.”

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