Hillary Clinton is preparing to unleash her 'secret weapon' in the bid for the presidential election campaign - her husband Bill.
The
former secretary of state is sending her husband out to
key early states such as Iowa and New Hampshire where she is locked in a
'dog fight' with Bernie Sanders for the Democratic bid.
Bill
Clinton, who was ranked as the most popular president of the past 25
years in a recent survey, will be a 'huge asset' to Hillary who must
secure one or both states. Losses in both would have a deep impact on
her 2016 election bid.
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Hillary Clinton is preparing to
release her 'secret weapon' in the bid for the presidential election
campaign - her husband Bill (pictured together in July)
Marc Lasry, a friend of Clinton's and head of New York hedge fund firm Avenue Capital Group, told the Wall Street Journal: 'People love seeing (Bill) and he's able to explain things to people in a way that's unique.'
Hillary
may need every bit of help she can after a recent CNN poll showed that
the former first lady is now in a statistical tie
with Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
The same stats also appear to show that her lead in the Democratic presidential primary is slowly evaporating.
Clinton
once enjoyed a brief flash of world-beating dominance over Bernie
Sanders in the primary fight, but that moment has passed as the margin
she once enjoyed over The Donald has also shrunk.
The CNN poll
shows that her lead over the Vermont socialist senator is back to just
16 percentage points – a 50-34 spread – down from 28 just three weeks
ago.
The former secretary of state is sending her husband out to key early states such as Iowa and New Hampshire
And in a slugfest with Trump, she is now just 2 points ahead in a poll whose margin of error is 3.
Even
if Clinton is a shoe-in for her party's nomination next year – an
uncertain prospect given the specter of an FBI investigation into
classified emails hanging over her head – Democrats are generally less
enthusiastic than Republicans about voting in 2016.
CNN's
polling data showed that 36 per cent of Republicans and GOP-leaning
independents say they are 'extremely' enthusiastic about going to the
polls next November, just 19 per cent of Americans on the Democratic
side of the ledger agree.
Perhaps that explains why Clinton is so keen to use her husband - who she has branded her 'secret weapon' to bolster her appeal.
Until
now, former president Bill Clinton has been keeping a relatively low
profile, only appearing at a few private fundraisers and offering advice
to Hillary behind closed doors.
But from next month, he will be taking a starring role at public forums for Hillary in Iowa and New Hampshire.
However, some have warned Hillary not to allow Bill to overshadow her own bid for the White House.
Clinton is said to be locked in a close battle with fellow candidate Bernie Sanders for key states Iowa and New Hampshire
NUMBERS:
Hillary Clinton's lead over Bernie Sanders shrunk (left) between late
November (green) and this past week (purple), but she clearly got a
debate 'bounce' from Saturday (right)
'He's
a luminescent figure. That's always an issue,' said David Axelrod, a
senior adviser in both of Mr. Obama's presidential campaigns, who
recommended that the couple campaign separately.
'It's important for people to see her out there on her own,' he added to the Wall Street Journal.
Mr
Clinton remains a hugely popular figure in the Democrat party and was a
surrogate for President Barack Obama during his re-election bid in
2012.
With
his help, and following a strong debate performance Saturday in
Manchester, New Hampshire, Mrs Clinton will be in a good position to
pull ahead from Sanders in the key state.
While
Clinton still leads against Sanders, Hillary and The Donald are
splitting the support of independent voters, a crucial swing bloc that
politicians especially covet.
The Democratic front
runner appears to be taking a more combative stance to tackle Trump
after the billionaire mogul said last week that President Obama had
'schlonged' her in the 2008 race to the White House.
Hillary,
he said Monday in what might be the most brutal salvo in the 2016
general election, 'got schlonged' by the current occupant of the Oval
Office when Obama came out of nowhere to snatch the presidential
nomination from her.
HERE COMES DONALD: Trump's resilience
and massive campaign crowds have put him in a statistical tie with
Hillary Clinton when pollsters ask about a hypothetical general election
battle between the two
'Hillary – that's not a president ... everything that's been involved in Hillary has been losses,' he said. 'You take a look.
'She was going to beat Obama! I don’t know who’d be worse – I don’t know, how does it get worse?' he asked.
'But she was gonna beat – she was favored to win and she got schlonged. She lost. I mean, she lost.'
He
also made comments in the press about Clinton's brief absence from a
recent Democratic debate stage, when she was reportedly using the
restroom, which he called 'disgusting.'
Clinton later said she 'deplored the tone of his campaign' which she described as 'bullying'.
'The
inflammatory rhetoric that he is using to divide people,' Clinton said,
'and his going after groups of people with hateful, incendiary
rhetoric.'
'I
don’t know that he has any boundaries at all. His bigotry, his bluster,
his bullying have become his campaign. And he has to keep sort of
upping the stakes and going even further.'
In an interview with the Des Moines Register, Mrs. Clinton added that Trump has 'demonstrated a penchant for sexism.'
Clinton's
chief PR strategist, Jennifer Palmieri, tweeted: 'We are not responding
to Trump, but everyone who understands the humiliation this degrading
language inflicts on all women should.'
A
spokesman for Trump later warned that the campaign were ready to attack
Bill Clinton on sexism - he paid $850,000 in a sexual harassment suit
while in the White House - if Hillary attacked the Republican on the
same grounds.
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