Hillary: Love Her, Hate Her

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Now the choreography is reversed, and it is Hillary's time to take the lead. The Biotechnology Industry Organization learned that the hard way when it paid Bill's customary six-figure speaking fee to book him as the star attraction at its annual convention for 20,000 attendees. A week or so before the April 11 speech in Chicago, his people made a sudden demand: he wanted it closed to all media except the trade press. Hillary, as it happened, had dibs on the spotlight that day, with a speech to the Economic Club of Chicago. The couple's handlers wanted to make sure that she, not he, got the headlines, which is how it turned out. Before Bill's aides make a major commitment for him, says an ally, "there's a lot of checking" with Team Hillary.

Yet ceding center stage does not come naturally to Bill. He can be simultaneously Hillary's best asset and a subtle saboteur. When they appeared together at a $1,000-a-ticket fund raiser for Hillary last summer on Nantucket in Massachusetts, his introductory remarks were longer than her speech, recalls a prominent Democrat who was there. As the guest of honor's turn to speak finally came, much of the crowd migrated to the other side of the pool to gather where her husband continued to talk.

Then there was the scene in Buffalo, N.Y., in May when she formally accepted her party's nomination for re-election at the state Democratic convention. Hillary's handlers had the good sense to plant Bill in the audience and not onstage until after she had finished the speech in which she hailed him as "an inspiration and a mentor and a friend and a partner." But for at least 15 minutes after she and every other politician had left, he lingered at the microphones, answering reporters' questions, oblivious to aides trying to scoot him out.

With the talent he has and the baggage he brings and the sensation he creates, Bill Clinton is the best possible political spouse and the worst. "I don't know what he does. Does he campaign for her? Doesn't he campaign for her?" asks an adviser to Hillary. "I don't think anybody within the inner circle of the Clintons understands how this will work." Her 2000 Senate race was something of a test run. As a sitting President, he could beg off anything more than the occasional campaign appearance. Safely behind the scenes, however, Bill went over her speeches line by line, hassled her staff when they overscheduled her, oversaw her debate prep, second-guessed her ad buys.

Hillary has improved her game considerably since becoming a politician in her own right. When scripted, she can still come off as a scold, but she has learned to attack a rope line with gusto and at her best can be engaging, warm and funny, especially in small settings. Still, "he overpowers her with his gifts," says a senior Democratic strategist. When they appear together, he adds, "it also makes it harder to see the gifts that she has that he doesn't, like a better sense of self and much less insecurity."