How Will Bill Clinton Manage His Brand?

The former President's conduct during the Obama-McCain campaign has strategic importance for his image, legacy, and huge moneymaking ability

Bill Clinton is not just a former President, but a giant enterprise in a way that no former U.S. President has touched. Chris Hondros/Getty Images

by David Kiley

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Former President Bill Clinton last year earned around $50 million in speaking fees, giving 80% of that to his philanthropic foundation. He once cleared $700,000 in a single weekend delivering three speeches, one of which was by videoconference. The Bill Clinton Show ran in venues last year from Las Vegas to Dubai, as he paraded his increasingly Bono-like persona before industry, political, and investor groups around the world.

That was then. Now, the White House hopes of Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) are in tatters. And the former President's reputation and image have been dented by his role in her campaign—after many pundits and analysts blamed him for overreaching in denigrating the electability of Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.). After the South Carolina primary in January, Bill Clinton was criticized for seeming to belittle Obama's win there, comparing it to the 1984 and 1988 primary victories by the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Thus, the question facing Bill Clinton is what he should do about his brand to protect his legacy, as well as the moneymaking machine he has come to count on.

Aware of His Crucial Choices

It's not as if the 42nd President is ignorant of the power of branding in politics. At the Promax/BDA promotion conference in New York a year ago, one of his speaking gigs, Clinton said he lost the "battle of branding" to the Republicans during his Administration. "[The Republicans] were brilliant at branding. They said they were about values…Everybody is a values voter, but they got the brand…they said they were against the death tax…God, what a great brand." The former President went on: "I did a disservice to the American people not by putting forth a bad plan, but by not being a better brander, not being able to explain it better."

"He does get it…the Bill-as-a-brand thing," says one longtime friend and adviser of the Clintons who has also worked for corporations on branding strategy. "If it seemed at times on the campaign trail with Hillary that he was getting too down and dirty, too retail, for a former President, it's because he never dreamed Hillary wouldn't get the nomination, so he never thought he'd look bad doing it if she won," said the adviser. It's very difficult to get Clinton campaign aides and those who move in Clinton's circles to talk about their image problem right now on the record.

Bill Clinton is not just a former President, but a huge enterprise in a way that no former U.S. President has touched. The money machine has put more than $100 million into both Clintons' pockets since 2001 and billions of dollars into the William J. Clinton Foundation (some in the form of future commitments from corporations and banks). Its core is the former President's popularity and his ability to engage and command huge audiences at extravagant prices. It is that enterprise that some Democratic strategists say will keep Hillary Clinton from being Obama's running mate. If Hillary Clinton had won the Democratic nomination, she could have stonewalled turning over all files and contribution records of the Clinton Library and Bill Clinton's personal income. But as a running mate, Obama surrogates have argued, it would be too awkward for her to take that stance while Obama is running on a platform of no lobbyists in his campaign and Administration, and total transparency. Speaking fees and library donations paid to Clinton or to the Clinton Library by foreign investment funds and foreign governments are viewed as problematic for Hillary Clinton as a Vice-Presidential candidate.

Never Boring

Still, with so much at stake for Bill Clinton, many longtime Washington political handlers say the former President will find a way to return to form fairly quickly after the demise of Hillary's campaign. "While Bill Clinton has squandered much of his equity this year as a Democratic party leader, he has yet to commit the only great sin in contemporary American culture—being boring," says Eric Dezenhall, chief executive of Dezenhall Resources, a Washington crisis-management consultant.