Davenport, Iowa — “You know something I always kinda wondered? I wonder if Hillary is a country girl, if she’d get out there and shake it,” a leather-clad singer twanged into the microphone at the country-chic Col Ballroom in Davenport, Iowa, Friday night, moments before he launched into another honky-tonk jam. “I wish she was up on stage to prove it right now.”
Hillary Clinton arrived soon after. And though she regrettably did not shake it, she did deliver one of her most passionate stump speeches since she began her final campaign push before Iowans caucus on Monday. The thousand-person crowd was rapt with attention and trembled with cheers as once-hokey lines brimmed with fire. It wasn’t the usual fare she’d been serving the middle-school gym crowd all week, and it seemed motivated by the event’s real draw — Bill Clinton, who’d flown into Iowa on Wednesday to buttress his wife’s campaign against unexpectedly stiff headwinds from Senator Bernie Sanders.
The former president was in fine finger-pointing form as he introduced his wife, captivating the crowd as he extolled her many virtues. “Let me tell you what I’ve learned, what I’ve seen for 45 years,” said Clinton, pausing as his voice quavered with emotion. “She never touched a thing that she — didn’t — make — better.”
RELATED: How Bill Clinton Could Hurt Hillary In Iowa
The would-be First Husband eschewed direct attacks on Sanders, instead concentrating on his wife’s legislative accomplishments and her experience in international diplomacy. But he did take one, veiled shot at the Vermont senator. “Folks, you can talk about change, but somebody’s gotta make it,” he said pointedly, implicitly referencing Sanders’s pie-in-the-sky promises. “She is the best change-maker I have ever known, and with your help, and your caucus voice, we can make her the next president of the United States!”
Cue Hillary Clinton, who bounded onstage to give her husband a hug and a chaste cheek-kiss, then turned to face the crowd while he abruptly slouched off stage. “I brought a pretty good warm-up act, don’t you think!?” she said, to cheers of approval from the crowd. Bill had already left the ballroom.
#share#His sudden departure wasn’t unusual. Since the tumultuous Lewinsky years, the Clintons have operated in largely independent circles — she in her government career, he in his philanthropic endeavors. Though supportive of each other’s ambitions, their separate pathways to success and power have been clearly demarcated. Friday marked the first time the Clintons came together during the Iowa home stretch — on Wednesday and Thursday, Bill worked the crowds solo on her behalf. And throughout the campaign — perhaps to make sure Bill’s star power doesn’t dim Hillary’s own wattage — they’ve rarely been seen in the same room together.
Some see rank cynicism, perhaps even something perverse, in the Clintons’ quid pro quo relationship. Earlier this month, Donald Trump accused Hillary of being an “enabler” for Bill’s sexual adventures. But most Democrats in Davenport — even those disgusted by her husband’s philandering — viewed her decision to stick with him as a shrewd business decision.
Despite the tension, the Clintons are there for each other when it’s down to the wire.
“Everybody said after Monica Lewinsky she should’ve left him, you know, how could he do that to her?” says Susan Herman, a Davenport native torn between Clinton and Sanders. “I think she stayed because she knew one day she was going to be doing this. Good for her. I mean, good for her for breaking the glass ceiling, good for her for getting to this point.”
“I actually think it makes her stronger that she stayed,” says Jeff Deppe, a union representative from Moline, Ill., just across the Mississippi.
#related#And despite the tension, the Clintons are there for each other when it’s down to the wire. That was clear on Friday, when Bill’s powerful performance energized both the crowd and his wife. Her usual stump speech, at this point repeated ad nauseam at every Iowa event, resonated with the assembled Democrats as she raised her voice and swept her arm against the excesses of Wall Street and pharmaceutical companies. When she railed against Republicans and promised to protect President Obama’s progress, the crowd didn’t politely applaud — it roared.
Bill will accompany his wife on two more “get out the caucus” events in Iowa, on Saturday and Sunday. He may not be the same the political maestro he once was — the New York Times said his “old magic seems to be missing” in his solo pitches to Iowans this week — but in short doses, the former president still dazzles the true believers. If that dazzling leads to caucusing come Monday, Sanders should be worried.