Obama and Clinton, together again

The up-and-down relationship between President Obama and Democratic predecessor Bill Clinton is back on the upswing.

Clinton is getting a prime time speaking slot at the convention that renominates Obama in early September -- it's part of the current president's plan to promote his economic policy with the help of a predecessor who presided over a boom economy in the 1990s.

"President Clinton oversaw the longest economic expansion in U.S. history, pursuing many of the same policies that President Obama is proposing and implementing today," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who chairs the Democratic convention to be held Sept. 3-6 in Charlotte.

Obama senior strategist David Axelrod said Obama personally asked Clinton to deliver the convention speech. "There's no one around who has greater standing to talk about the economy, about where we've been and how to build a strong economy for the future," Axelrod said of Clinton.

Clinton plans to discuss the economy on Sept. 5, when he formally places Obama's name in nomination for re-election.

Vice President Biden, who might otherwise get that Wednesday night slot, will instead speak Thursday, introducing Obama before his acceptance speech at Bank of America Stadium, the home of pro football's Carolina Panthers.

Clinton, who did not issue any kind of statement Monday, has said he will do whatever the Obama campaign wants as it confronts Republican challenger Mitt Romney in the fall campaign.

Axelrod said voters will be seeing Clinton during the fall campaign. "He and the president chat on a regular basis," Axelrod said. "We're going to take as much of his time as we can get. He's a great surrogate."

He added: "Nobody can lay out the case and the chouce with greater authority and impact than Bill Clinton."

The Obama-Clinton relationship has not always been a smooth one.

Four years ago, of course, tensions surfaced frequently as Obama defeated former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton to claim the Democratic presidential nomination. (Obama later appointed her as secretary of State -- meaning, among things, that she will not be attending the convention, given her status as the nation's top diplomat.)

This year, Bill Clinton raised eyebrows in the Obama camp by saying that Romney had a "sterling" business career, and appearing to question Obama's attacks on it. Clinton and his aides later noted he also said that Romney's election would hurt the country because he is "wrong on the economy."

Clinton later suggested that all tax cuts due to expire at the end of the year should be extended, putting him at odds with Obama's position. Clinton later said he agreed with Obama that the George W. Bush-era tax cuts should end for wealthier Americans.

Republicans have used Clinton's words to bash Obama. Some GOP aides said Monday that Clinton's speech cannot obscure the fact that the economy is struggling on the incumbent's watch, with trillion-dollar deficits and an unemployment rate higher than 8%.

"Americans deserve a president willing to run on his own record, not the record he wishes he had," Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said.

In criticizing Obama, some Republicans have praised Clinton's economic record -- quite a contrast from the political environment of the late 1990s. A Republican-run House impeached Clinton in late 1998 over the Monica Lewinsky matter, though a GOP Senate acquitted him in early 1999.

Perhaps as a result, Clinton has not always been welcome on the campaign trail.

Then-vice president Al Gore seemed to shun Clinton's help back in his 2000 race for the presidency (though Clinton did address the Gore convention).

Chris Lehane, who worked in the Clinton White House and in the Gore campaign, said the dynamics are totally different nowadays.

A dozen years ago, Lehane said, Gore was a vice president seeking to get out from under Clinton's shadow; today, Obama is a sitting president who is looking to convince voters that his economic plan is the right one.

"There is no better validator in the world when it comes to the economy and jobs than Bill Clinton," Lehane said.

Will Clinton's help win Obama any actual votes?

A Gallup Poll released Monday said that 66% of Americans have a favorable view of Clinton -- tying his record-high rating recorded at the time of his inauguration in January 1993.

"Clinton's solid popularity with Americans today might help attract new support to Obama from outside the party, particularly from whites, men, seniors and political independents -- all important voting groups that Obama is struggling with in trial heats against Republican Mitt Romney," said Gallup.

Jennifer Duffy, senior editor of The Cook Political Report, said Clinton could appeal to a specific group of voters: political independents who don't align themselves with either party. Duffy said Obama won independents by 8 percentage points over John McCain four years ago, but his approval rating among that group now lags in the low 40s.

Clinton, she said, can "make the case Obama wants."

In recent years, the Wednesday night speaking slots at political conventions have gone to vice presidents.

In announcing Clinton's speech, the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign said planners "are returning to a long-standing convention tradition that was suspended in 1996 which slated both the presidential and vice presidential nominees to speak on the final night of the convention."