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Former President Bill Clinton said he has “learned a very valuable lesson from all that dust-up” about his role in his wife’s campaign and perceived attacks on Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) leading up to the South Carolina primary last month. The former president has maintained a much lower profile since his actions on behalf of his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), raised eyebrows and elicited much criticism.Though Bill Clinton maintained that nothing he said about Obama was factually incorrect or a personal attack, he admitted that he made a mistake to “think that I was a spouse like any other spouse who could defend his candidate.” Clinton said, in an interview aired Friday on NBC’s Today Show, that his role as former president means that he “can promote Hillary but not defend her” and he must leave the job of defending her to others. “This is her campaign and her presidency and her decisions,” Bill Clinton said. “And so, even if I win an argument with another candidate, it’s not the right thing to do.” He also tried to downplay his role in another Clinton White House. “I will not be in the Cabinet. I will not be on the staff full-time. I will not in any way interfere with the work of a strong vice president, strong secretary of state, strong secretary of treasury,” Clinton said. Instead, the former president stated, that he would just be there to “let her bounce ideas off of me,” as well as for “whatever specific assignments seem right.” However, Bill Clinton ruled out that he would not vigorously campaign for his wife, just because he is a former president.
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