Article content continued

I’m going to put him in charge of revitalizing the economy because, you know, he knows how to do it.

Dissatisfaction has grown among middle- and working-class voters who feel they are being left behind by an economy in which incomes are rising only for those at the top.

Many have backed Bernie Sanders in the campaign, seeing the former first lady as part of the elite that protects its own interests at their expense.

Clinton’s comment that she would “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business” for the sake of renewable energy has further alienated them.

Aware that lower-income voters in states like Ohio may well decide her electoral fate in November, Clinton has emphasized the more balanced growth that she says characterized her husband’s time in office.

“When my husband was president, incomes rose for everybody,” she said on Sunday in Kentucky.

Bill Clinton, for his part, has regularly travelled to poor and rural parts of the U.S. on his wife’s behalf.

The former governor of Arkansas, America’s third-poorest state, has expressed empathy for the plight of struggling voters and stressed that his wife would fight for their welfare.

I want you to send me to any place in America that feels left out and left behind.

Speaking earlier this month in West Virginia, he said he told his wife, “I want you to send me to any place in America that feels left out and left behind.”

Asked last year if he would have an office in the West Wing alongside top White House officials, Clinton demurred. “He’s a pretty busy guy, I don’t know about anything like that,” she said.

Clinton did take an office in the West Wing during her husband’s presidency, becoming the first first lady to do so, and took a much more active role in policy-making than most presidential spouses before or since.

Bill Clinton’s role in his wife’s administration could be complicated by his work with the Clinton Foundation, which raises money internationally and has been the subject of multiple controversies.

Most recently, it was reported that the foundation had steered US$2 million to a for-profit company owned in part by a close friend of Bill Clinton.

The foundation has denied that there was any conflict of interest involved in the transaction.

He remains highly popular, with his approval rating currently above 60 per cent.