Former US president Bill Clinton rested his chin in his hand and smiled while his wife told a cheering crowd why it was her turn to be president.
Sitting on a low stool on a stage surrounded by flag-lined hay bales on Monday, he was the picture of spousal support, standing behind Senator Hillary Clinton just as she had stood behind him through decades of his own political campaigns and a congressional investigation into his infidelity while he led the White House.
He was, Bill had told the crowd moments earlier in an uncharacteristically short speech, a proud member of "Husbands for Hillary."
PHOTO: EPA
And his faith in her candidacy was so strong that "I'd be here tonight -- if she asked me -- if we weren't married."
While most Democrats see an endorsement by the party's most popular leader as a pure boon, it is more complicated for Hillary, who had until now kept Bill on the sidelines of her campaign.
The aim was to move away from the much derided two-for-the-price-of-one theme of his 1992 presidential campaign -- that the US would get two capable leaders by voting for Bill -- and to allow Hillary a chance to overcome her image as a controversial first lady and tout her own record as a New York senator since 2001.
After a few joint appearances at fundraisers, the couple launched their first campaign swing in a whirlwind three-day tour of Iowa, the only crucial early-voting state where she is trailing in the polls.
Bill's role was to introduce voters to another side of Hillary and to show them that while she was in charge, he would be there to help.
Despite the oft-reported strains in their marriage, they were -- for all outward appearances -- a loving couple. Bill spoke proudly of Hillary's achievements and decades of public service.
He told a story of how a woman in Asia came up to him to say how much Hillary had helped her when, as first lady of the US, she declared at a UN conference in Beijing that women's rights were human rights.
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