Bill Clinton Picks Up Hillary's Campaigning as She Temporarily Exits South Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C. — If Barack Obama was already confused about which Clinton he is running against for president, as he quipped in Monday night's debate, Bill Clinton's arrival here Tuesday as a surrogate for wife, Hillary, probably was not a moment of clarity.

The former president showed up at the Lizard's Thicket restaurant just north of downtown here Tuesday morning, only hours after the most rancorous debate of the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign, mostly because of the back-and-forth between Obama and Hillary Clinton.

"I'm pretty chilled out, don't you think?" the former president, chatty and relaxed, commented as he surveyed the crowd of reporters, TV cameras and photographers there to hear his take on the Democratic race with just four days left before South Carolina's first-in-the-South presidential primary.

Clinton's comment was directed mostly toward House Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, who had suggested to the former president, after some harsh-sounding criticism of Obama, that he chill out.

But ever since the day before the New Hampshire primary earlier this month, the former president had led much of the Clinton campaign's criticism of Obama, at least until the heated exchanges between Obama and Hillary Clinton in a debate in Myrtle Beach Monday night.

During the debate, Obama charged that the ex-president had distorted his record and, at one point, quipped that at times in the Democratic presidential contest, "I can't tell who I'm running against."

Hillary Clinton left the state shortly after the debate and does not intend to return until Friday, the day before the primary. So until she returns, the face of her campaign is the former president.

Bill Clinton arrived fully prepared to keep the pressure on Obama, but in a less fiery manner than in the past few weeks. When asked about Obama's quip about which Clinton he was running against, Clinton delivered his criticism with a chuckle.

"I thought he was running against me in Nevada for awhile when he said Republicans had ideas and challenged the conventional wisdom in the '90s," Clinton said. "I thought we challenged the conventional wisdom in the '90s."

He added: "I don't really think he's running against me. I just think he was doing what he thought he should do."

The former president was alluding to comments Obama made to a Nevada newspaper before last Saturday's Democratic presidential caucus praising some past Republican policy innovations.

Obama continued to take aim at both Clintons on Tuesday, telling reporters in a conference call that "it's very clear that Senator Clinton — and the president — have been spending the last month attacking me in ways that are not accurate."

Later, during an economic speech in Greenville, Obama mocked Clinton's contention that she is the candidate most ready to be president from the first day.

"We can't afford a president whose positions change with the politics of the moment," he said. "We need a president who knows that being ready on Day One means getting it right from Day One.

The call came shortly after Hillary Clinton, speaking to reporters in Washington, belittled Obama's line of debate criticism against her as "rehearsed talking points." She also suggested that Obama is "very frustrated" over losing New Hampshire and Nevada to her after winning the Iowa caucus on Jan. 3, the first contest of the year.

Obama leads by an average of 10 percentage points in all the polling done in South Carolina so far, suggesting that he will easily win Saturday's primary, in which nearly half of the voters are likely to be African American.

Hillary Clinton's decision to scale back her appearances in South Carolina this week in favor of campaigning in some of the 22 states that will be holding primaries or caucuses on Feb. 5 also reflects the likelihood of an Obama victory here.

John Edwards, the only other major rival for the party's 2008 nomination, sought Tuesday to capitalize on the positive reviews he received for his performance in Monday night's debate, one in which he rebuked Obama and Clinton for the squabbling.

"You know, between all the allegations of Hillary serving on the Wal-Mart board and Senator Obama working for a slumlord, I was proud to represent the grown-up wing of the Democratic Party last night," Edwards told a town hall meeting in Conway.

The Obama campaign, in a conference call, announced the establishment of a "truth squad" in South Carolina to police claims the Clintons make about Obama's record. Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, part of the effort, told reporters that Bill Clinton's actions on behalf of his wife's campaign are "not in keeping with the image of a former president."

Clinton himself told reporters here Tuesday that nothing he or his wife have said about Obama is inaccurate. "I try to be very careful about what I say," he said. "I think this is a great field, and we're going to have a few arguments — it's a contact sport."