WASHINGTON (AFP) — Former US president Bill Clinton admitted he had learned a lesson from the bitter exchanges provoked by his comments during presidential campaigning for his wife, Hillary.
"I think the mistake that I made is to think that I was a spouse like any other spouse who could defend his candidate," Clinton told a local news channel while campaigning Thursday in Portland, Maine.
"I think I can promote Hillary, but not defend her because I was president. I have to let her defend herself or have someone else defend her."
The ex-president fueled some of the harshest squabbling between his wife's campaign and that of her Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama with comments he made in her support during campaigning last month.
He drew fire when he dismissed as a "fairy tale" Obama's claims that he outshone Clinton in opposing the Iraq war from the start, with critics interpreting it as a snub to Obama's bid to be the first black president.
He then stepped in to the mudslinging ahead of the South Carolina primary nominating vote -- in which Obama benefited from support in the large black electorate -- comparing the Illinois senator's bid to the unsuccessful campaign of an earlier black presidential hopeful, Jesse Jackson.
Bill Clinton said however that some of the reporting on his comments was "factually inaccurate," insisting: "I did not ever criticize Senator Obama in South Carolina."
"I think whenever I defend her, A, I risk being misquoted and B, risk being the story," he said. "I don't want to be the story."
From now on, "I will do what I'm asked to do. I will not be in cabinet, I will not be on the staff full-time," he added.
"I will do what we've always done for each other. I will let her bounce ideas off of me."
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