In a week when a great financial crisis came to a head and the presidential campaign reached a kind of warp-speed intensity, the man who seemed most likely to be there when you turned on a television was not the president or the treasury secretary or the candidates. It was Bill Clinton.

As usual, he had a lot to say. What was unusual was the stir he made for things he did not say.

Mr. Clinton made appearances on morning news shows and late-night talk shows, many or all of them scheduled to coincide with the three-day annual meeting in New York of the Clinton Global Initiative.

His passion about the philanthropic conference was clear.

But perhaps because of the contrast with that passion, Mr. Clinton’s answers to questions about the presidential race between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain seemed to some Obama supporters like the damning faint praise of a Democratic holdout.

The question arose Thursday, when both candidates appeared at Mr. Clinton’s conference  Mr. McCain in person, Mr. Obama via satellite. Was this a metaphor for Mr. Clinton’s relationship with each one, or just a scheduling conflict?