Bill Clinton

Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention, Bill Clinton put on a master's clinic on how to fight a political campaign. It may not have made Democrats wish he was back in the White House (at least not every Democrat), but they sure long to see him out on the campaign trail. The former president took the stage to nominate the current president -- "I want to nominate a man who is cool on the outside, but burns for America on the inside" -- and found a way to turn every vulnerability of Barack Obama's candidacy into a strength.

As former President George W. Bush, joined by President Obama and three living former presidents, dedicates his library this week in Dallas, it's important to remember that presidential libraries are relatively new. In 1941, while he was still in office, Franklin D. Roosevelt established the first such archive in Hyde Park, N.Y., to preserve personal papers and mementos from his time in office. His successor, Harry Truman, signed the Presidential Libraries Act into law, authorizing the National Archives to help set up and operate these treasure troves of American politics and policy.

Through the squalls and storms of the past few months, no one has been more doggedly upbeat about President Clinton's ambitious plan for national health care reform than senior adviser Ira Magaziner and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. Magaziner, chief architect of Clinton's health care plan, took great delight in calling attention to his office bookshelves.

Bill Clinton will appear with mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel in the Los Angeles-area on Saturday, according to a source familiar with the plan. Additional details about the event, which is expected to include other Greuel supporters, were not available Friday. Clinton backed  Greuel's bid in March, in what was viewed as among the most significant endorsements in the campaign. In addition to being beloved by Democrats, Clinton has long-standing ties with African American voters and is appealing to some moderate Republicans - two critical voting blocs in the May 21 runoff against City Councilman Eric Garcetti.

Of all the acts of executive clemency that President Clinton granted as he was leaving the White House, few strike as close to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as her husband's decision to reduce the prison terms of four New York Hasidic Jews convicted of bilking tens of millions of dollars from the government. Sen. Clinton, New York's Democratic junior senator, has said that in general she was a bystander while President Clinton made his decisions on clemency.

In my Sunday column , I wrote that President Obama, with his permanent campaign promoting the poll-tested proposals in his State of the Union address, was beginning to resemble Bill Clinton. That provoked some angry email from readers who thought I was being too easy on the president -- President Clinton, that is. "Clinton left office with a solid list of accomplishments, high popularity and a healthy economy," I wrote. Several readers asked if I had forgotten the collapse of the "dot-com bubble" in 2000 and the recession that followed in 2001.  "Clinton left behind a collapsing economy -- a recession.

Bill Clinton on Tuesday downplayed perceived criticism of President Obama in his newly-released book, saying that his Democratic successor has "done a better job than he's getting credit for. " The former president does say in the book, "Back To Work," that the White House did not always take his advice on issues like the debt ceiling and Democrats' message in the 2010 campaign. But in a pair of interviews he sought to minimize any talk of a rift. "The book lavishly praises the administration's economic policy, its energy policy, its whole thing," Clinton told Ann Curry on NBC's "Today" show.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Sounding at times like a college lecturer and others like a revival speaker, former President Clinton delivered a thumping endorsement Wednesday night of incumbent Barack Obama, saying his policies were slowly healing the country and would lead to dramatic improvement in a second term. “No president, not me or any of my predecessors, could have repaired all the damage in just four years," Clinton said in a rapturously received speech that capped the second night of the Democratic National Convention.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Focused like a laser beam on making an economic case for President Obama's reelection, Bill Clinton  wrapped up a two-day Florida campaign swing Wednesday by reprising applause lines from his recent national convention speech. The former president made no reference to the deadly attack on U.S. diplomatic personnel in Libya, which had quickly become the center of the presidential campaign debate and the preoccupation of his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who had joined Obama at several events in Washington related to the killings.

Martin Scorsese has found his next film subject: Bill Clinton. The Oscar winner will produce and direct a documentary on the former president for HBO, the network announced Monday. The documentary will explore the 42nd president's perspective on history, politics and the like during his time in office and the years since -- with Clinton offering his full cooperation. “President Clinton is one of the most compelling figures of our time, whose world view and perspective, combined with his uncommon intelligence, make him a singular voice on the world stage.

Over the past few weeks, the race for mayor of Los Angeles has been less a contest of ideas and leadership than it's been an endorsement roulette, with Controller Wendy Greuel and Councilman Eric Garcetti trotting out their latest pledges of support as evidence of their fitness for the city's top job. But does anybody other than the candidates really care? Are there large numbers of voters who will vote for Greuel because Houston Mayor Annise Parker endorsed her or for Garcetti because former Albuquerque Mayor Marty Chavez spoke up for him?

WASHINGTON - Democratic strategist James Carville has thrown his weight behind a new "super PAC" that is promoting a  Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential run in 2016. The Ready for Hillary PAC has no formal connection to the former first lady and secretary of State, who hasn't ruled out another presidential try but has yet to announce a plan to run.  But Carville's involvement takes the group's fledgling efforts up at least a notch by adding what appears to be a semiofficial imprimatur by a well-known Clinton ally.

- Hillary Rodham Clinton returned to the public stage Tuesday night for the opening scene in what many expect to be a carefully plotted performance concluding with another presidential try. The high-profile venue: the Kennedy Center in the nation's capital. Several dozen mostly student-age supporters of a Clinton presidential run rallied outside, brandishing blue-and-white "I'm Ready for Hillary" placards. But the event inside was strictly nonpartisan: an awards gala for an international women's rights organization that Clinton had helped create.

President Bill Clinton has endorsed Wendy Greuel for mayor, saying in a letter that her time as city controller proves she can handle Los Angeles' problems. “In her many years of public service in Los Angeles … Wendy has personified good, honest and effective government, improving the lives of countless Angelenos while saving millions of their tax dollars,” Clinton wrote in a letter obtained by the Los Angeles Times . “And she's not done yet. Los Angeles is a great city with equally great challenges, so it's vital that Angelenos elect a proven, creative problem solver to lead them.

Former President Clinton endorsed Wendy Greuel to be Los Angeles' next mayor on Monday, saying that her track record, including a stint working in his administration, makes her a proven leader with the skills to confront the city's challenges. "In her many years of public service in Los Angeles…Wendy has personified good, honest and effective government, improving the lives of countless Angelenos while saving millions of their tax dollars," Clinton wrote in a letter to supporters.

In my Sunday column , I wrote that President Obama, with his permanent campaign promoting the poll-tested proposals in his State of the Union address, was beginning to resemble Bill Clinton. That provoked some angry email from readers who thought I was being too easy on the president -- President Clinton, that is. "Clinton left office with a solid list of accomplishments, high popularity and a healthy economy," I wrote. Several readers asked if I had forgotten the collapse of the "dot-com bubble" in 2000 and the recession that followed in 2001.  "Clinton left behind a collapsing economy -- a recession.

Former President Bill Clinton on Monday endorsed Wendy Greuel for Los Angeles mayor, saying the city controller's proven track record makes her the right candidate to confront the city's problems. “In her many years of public service in Los Angeles … Wendy has personified good, honest and effective government, improving the lives of countless Angelenos while saving millions of their tax dollars,” Clinton wrote in a letter obtained by the Los Angeles Times. “And she's not done yet. Los Angeles is a great city with equally great challenges, so it's vital that Angelenos elect a proven, creative problem solver to lead them.

It was a clash of titans, and Bill Clinton won. Wednesday night's prime-time coverage of the Democratic National Convention, which featured a fiery and finger-pointing address by former President Bill Clinton, attracted 25.1 million viewers, according to ratings giant Nielsen. The Democrats out-muscled the season opener of NFL football on NBC, which drew 23.9 million viewers. The Dallas Cowboys defeated the New York Giants on the field. The second night of the Democratic convention in Charlotte, N.C., was off slightly from the opening night of the event, which faced significantly less competition on TV.  On Tuesday night, the convention showcased Michelle Obama and drew 26.2 million viewers.  The Democratic convention continues to draw a larger audience than last week's Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. The second night of coverage of the Republican National Convention, which featured Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the GOP nominee for vice president, drew 21.94 million viewers.

We got a good long look at the second-term edition of Barack Obama last week, and he's sounding more like Bill Clinton every day. It's not all that surprising. Over the last two years, Obama has turned repeatedly to Clinton for counsel. And Obama was a target of Clinton's advice even before he asked for it. In a 2011 book and a series of public appearances, the former president laid out a polite but biting critique of Obama's first-term stumbles. Warning No. 1, coming from the man who proclaimed (in his 1996 State of the Union message)