After Storms, First Lady Finally Shines

Not counting her husband, Hillary Rodham Clinton has outpaced all other Democrats in recent months in raising money to win back the House of Representatives.

The first lady is hot. And Democratic candidates and operatives are doing all they can to make the most of it--despite President Clinton’s problems.

After years of lousy showings in public opinion polls--sometimes lower than her husband’s--Mrs. Clinton’s favorable ratings returned to a high level that she had not experienced since the first inauguration. Recent polls have shown her approval ratings as high as 65%, a far cry from her low point in early 1996, when only 42% viewed her favorably.

Mrs. Clinton’s political metamorphosis stems in part from her fortitude in the face of the glaring indignity of charges that the president was unfaithful.

“For the first time, she’s a sympathetic character,” said Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster. “The more that comes out about [President Clinton], the better she looks.

“It has softened some of the hostility of her opponents. They almost forgive her for the things that they didn’t like about her previously.”

Instead of hiding from public view this year as independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr has investigated her husband’s relationship with a former White House intern, Mrs. Clinton traveled the country to call for improvements in the nation’s health care and child care systems, to draw attention to the imperiled state of America’s historical treasures and to campaign for Democrats.

Key to Mrs. Clinton’s political success is a remarkable transformation in her image over the last several years from a threatening ideologue on the liberal fringe to an appealing advocate for centrist, family-friendly policies.

“When she was the front person on health care reform, that was an unfortunate role,” said Colorado Gov. Roy Romer, who is chairman of the Democratic National Committee. More recently, “she’s not been out in a visible way,” Romer added. “She’s been quietly and silently doing very important, solid work on children and family issues. Low-profile, hard work is a posture that people really applaud.”

A New Political Star Is Born

Unlike the early years of the administration, when she was sometimes booed by hostile crowds, now--and not just in partisan crowds--she is greeted like a rock star.

More than 10,000 people--many holding posters with such slogans as “Hillary for President”--greeted her last month in a high school stadium in the upstate New York village of Seneca Falls.

Although her topic was women’s rights, Mrs. Clinton delivered a speech so absent of controversy that not even conservatives could have objected. She has muted her rhetoric and learned the art of compromise. “Will we admit once and for all there is no cookie-cutter model for being a successful and fulfilled woman today?” Mrs. Clinton said, evoking a self-conscious metaphor to issue the most universally unobjectionable call to arms imaginable.

Some of her longtime fans bemoan the blanding of Mrs. Clinton and miss her old willingness to swing for the fences in her efforts to improve the country.

“I think she did give in to her critics,” said Margaret Urchfitz, 50, an assistant dean of engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology, who was one of the thousands of people who listened to Mrs. Clinton’s address in Seneca Falls. “She probably felt that she had to back down while Bill was in office. I hope she’ll resume after they leave the White House.”

Nonetheless, her longtime supporters remain faithful, believing that, underneath, the fiery Mrs. Clinton, who sought to take an active role in the administration, still rages. But by taking a page from her husband’s political manual and focusing on the more palatable of the issues that she cares about, Mrs. Clinton has won many converts from the political center.

“At first, it almost seemed like she was the one who had run for president,” said Carol Griffith, 42, a registered nurse who runs the women’s wellness program at a veterans hospital in Buffalo, N.Y. “She’s more measured now. She’s definitely grown. She’s got a better idea of what she can actually do from her position.”

Writing a best-selling book about raising children (“It Takes a Village”), traveling with daughter Chelsea, talking about her daughter in folksy ways in her weekly newspaper column and touring America’s historic treasures with a press corps in tow have all helped soften Mrs. Clinton’s public image. When she talks about child care for preschoolers, her current cause celebre, she never wanders into controversial territory such as the health care initiative.

The clincher for Griffith and other former Hillary skeptics was watching her “weathering the storms” of the last several years, particularly the accusations of the president’s sexual misconduct and the media’s obsession with the topic. “I think she’s going through a tremendous amount of duress and is still standing up well,” Griffith added. “That’s got to count for something.”

Some people who have been close to the first lady for a long time caution that, while her public persona now resembles that of her husband’s--the centrist, consensus-building politician--there is a dramatic difference. “The private Hillary is very different from the public Hillary . . . ,” said one former senior White House official, who spoke on condition that he not be named. “She’s harder-edged and less compromising than the president in private.”

In the first years of the Clinton presidency, before the searing defeat of the health care reform initiative that she headed, what the public saw was more like the private Mrs. Clinton. That experience taught her that her husband’s approach to politics--pragmatic progress and incremental goals--can be more effective.

“My sense is that she is a person who believed because of her upbringing, her culture and her education that the individual has considerable control over events,” added the official, who has known Mrs. Clinton for decades. “After the experiences of 1993 and 1994 in Washington, she now understands that is not necessarily true. I don’t think she’s compromised her goals or vision of what she wants to accomplish. What she has done very dramatically is change how she operates.”

Whether Mrs. Clinton simply has altered her public image, her metamorphosis has delighted Democratic officials, who have eagerly used her broadening appeal to try to improve the party’s chances in the upcoming congressional elections. Both houses now are controlled by Republicans. The Democrats need to win 12 seats to be assured of taking control of the House.

For the first time, she penned major fund-raising letters for both Democratic congressional campaign committees.

First Lady Leading Fund-Raising Frenzy

She has broken her own record for campaigning for candidates other than her husband and has a busy schedule in the fall for more campaigning, according to her staff. Other first ladies’ political efforts for candidates other than their husband pale in comparison to hers, according to presidential scholar Carl Anthony. Mrs. Clinton has attended events for at least a dozen House candidates, many of them newcomers, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“She is a huge asset,” said Dan Sallick, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which works on behalf of House candidates. “Every one of these trips has been a slam dunk, both in terms of money and message.”

Most impressive to Democratic operatives is just how willing Mrs. Clinton has been to respond to their advice about where she should go to help in the most critical races. With only two days’ notice, she traveled to Albuquerque on Father’s Day for an event for Phil Maloof, the unsuccessful Democratic candidate in a special election. Although Mrs. Clinton has stumped for incumbents with whom she has worked closely on issues like health care and child care, she has also worked hard for challengers she had never met.

Mrs. Clinton is a particularly welcome face on the campaign trail because she has come to personify the Democrats’ increasingly mainstream approach to social issues. She also draws unlikely donors.

Like many of the 200 people at a fund-raiser in Ithaca, N.Y., last month, Lorraine McNett paid $100 to see Mrs. Clinton--not to forward the career of the candidate, Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey.

“I don’t know that much about him,” confessed McNett, 47, who teaches adult literacy classes. “I’m not a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat.”

The evening netted Hinchey $30,000, but, more important, it gave him valuable television time with Mrs. Clinton.

No one has benefited more from the first lady’s zeal for politicking than Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who is in a difficult race. The first lady already has headlined five fund-raisers for Boxer, bringing in $700,000 for the senator’s effort to fend off Republican challenger Matt Fong.

“It’s a big help,” Boxer said. “It makes my events more exciting and interesting. She has stood in line for hours [as photographers have snapped pictures] and been incredibly gracious.”

Boxer is getting a lot of the first lady’s time for several reasons. She and the first lady agree on a wide range of issues, and she faces a difficult race with Fong. But the relationship also involves family: Boxer’s daughter is married to Mrs. Clinton’s brother.

In addition to hitting the campaign trail and raising cash for critical races, the first lady is also at the center of a White House effort to build a new intellectual framework that unites both liberal and centrist factions of the party.

Sitting at a table in the White House Map Room, Mrs. Clinton orchestrated a 2 1/2-hour discussion last month with 16 Democratic intellectuals from outside the administration as well as key officials of the White House and Vice President Al Gore’s staffs.

“She pushed hard to find common ground and urged people to talk about the positions that divide us,” said Benjamin R. Barber, a Rutgers University political scientist. “Her leadership comes out of wanting to see her issues--education, health care, children--addressed in the future.”

Speculation on Her Next Role

Mrs. Clinton’s enthusiasm for politics and her celebrity and increasing popularity have sparked speculation about what she will do with her huge political base when her husband’s presidency ends.

Boxer said she hopes the first lady will run for office herself.

“I think she’s extraordinarily talented and gifted, and I’d hate to see her leave the public sector,” Boxer said.

“But I don’t know what she has in mind after she leaves the White House. I’ve asked her, but she just says: ‘It’s almost like we’re not thinking past that day.’ ”

But Marcia Berry, the first lady’s spokeswoman, said that she does not believe running for office is in Mrs. Clinton’s future. Nonetheless, Berry expects her to continue to exert her influence--as an unelected advocate with a huge following--on issues that the first lady cares about.

“She doesn’t have to run for office to be an important person in the future of the Democratic Party,” said Elaine Kamark, a Harvard University professor who attended Mrs. Clinton’s White House meeting of intellectuals. “She will be.”