INDIANOLA, Iowa — It was a preview of coming distractions.

When Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton decided to return to the state where her presidential ambitions first came undone six years ago, the idea was that they would remind Democratic activists about the importance of the midterm elections and honor their host, Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, who is retiring from Congress and held his final steak fry fund-raiser here Sunday. And that was what transpired, in part, on a sun-splashed day on a balloon field here, just south of Des Moines.

But as is often the case wherever Mr. Clinton goes, what amounted to the unofficial start of the next Iowa presidential caucuses was as much about the Clinton who already served as president as the one who appears to have designs on the office.

The 37th Harkin Steak Fry began with an impromptu 15-minute question-and-answer session between Mr. Clinton and a few dozen reporters at what is traditionally only a brief photo-op with the V.I.P.s and the beef on the grill.

It concluded with a 30-minute tour d’horizon from the former president on topics including Haiti, his soon-to-arrive grandchild, Senator Mitch McConnell and the impact of the billionaires the Koch brothers on American politics. In between, Mr. Harkin; his wife, Ruth; and Mrs. Clinton herself did their best to focus attention on the other half of the once and perhaps future first couple.