AP News, December 13th, 2007
It's not often that Bill Clinton is relegated to the role of substitute, but the former president filled in Wednesday night at a million-dollar fundraiser his presidential candidate wife missed because of bad weather.
Hillary Rodham Clinton stayed in Iowa because of a severe ice storm.
Explaining her absence, Bill Clinton emphasized the importance of her doing well in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, an important early test in the New York senator's quest to win the Democratic presidential nomination.
"She started off way behind there," he told the audience of about 1,000 Hillary Clinton supporters who paid $100 to $2,300 to attend the event at the State Theatre. "And she might just win anyway. For that I'm very proud of her."
In a 20-minute speech that served as a lengthy introduction of singer Tony Bennett, Clinton spoke in glowing terms of his wife as being "an agent for change," saying that when she touches people's lives she leaves them better off than before she got involved.
"It's one thing to have good intentions, and it's another to change people's lives," he said. "Everything she's ever touched was better off than when she started."
Hillary Clinton decided against chancing a flight to New Jersey, knowing she has to be back in Des Moines, Iowa, for a debate Thursday afternoon.
"It's a question of logistics," said John F.X. Graham, co-chairman of Clinton's New Jersey finance committee. "If she got stuck here and missed the debate, it would be quite embarrassing."
