In His Wife's Campaign, Bill Clinton Is a Free Agent

He mentioned his wife by name only once. Then he circled back to the subject of his "Oprah" appearance.

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Afterward, Clinton shook hands and walked the rope line. A reporter asked how he had been.

"I'm okay," he replied. He added that he had been "working hard" lately, flying around the world -- without so much as a fleeting reference to Hillary.

The next day, after spending the night in his two-bedroom condo atop the presidential library, Clinton flew to Minnesota for a fitness center dedication at the Mayo Clinic. He acknowledged Dan Abraham, a donor, as a "generous friend" to the Clinton family.

But the former president said no more about the current candidate. He mused instead about being "dictator for a day," saying that even if he were given such a post, he could not solve the country's health problems unless people got serious about preventive care.

Only that night did Clinton focus on campaigning for his wife. He held a 2,000-person fundraiser at the State Theater in downtown Minneapolis, where he opened his remarks by discussing his 32-year marriage.

"We were laughing and talking, and believe it or not the campaign even gave her the night off," Clinton said, describing an anniversary celebration the couple shared 12 days earlier.

"We had about decided by the end of the night that the key to a long relationship was never being bored with one another," he said. "And I still would rather spend the night talking to her than anybody I can think of."

Even in that appearance, though, Clinton detoured more than once to talk about his own work in the Oval Office (ruminating on the Kyoto accords at one point, he said, "It was the only bill I ever lost before I sent it to Congress").

Later, he was interrupted repeatedly by several hecklers. When he responded to defend his wife, he did so with full force.

One man shouted from the audience that Hillary Clinton's Iraq vote had been a fraud.

"A fraud? No, it wasn't a fraud, but I'll be glad to talk to you if you'll shut up and let me talk," Clinton said. When another heckler shouted that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were an inside job, Clinton grew defiant, asking: "An inside job? How dare you? How dare you?" The audience loudly cheered on the former president.

After yet another taunt, Clinton drew a breath and shot back: "These people did not come here to hear you speak." And he made the audience laugh. "If you don't have any self-control," he said, "we can live with it."