Politics / Bill Clinton Bill Admits He Is Unlike 'Any Other Spouse' Playing offense for Hillary was inapt, ex-prez says By Jonas Oransky, Newser Staff Posted Feb 8, 2008 2:21 PM CST Copied Former President Bill Clinton speaks on behalf of his wife, Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., Friday, Feb. 8, 2008, at Dillard University in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (Associated Press) Bill Clinton said yesterday he took the wrong approach in defending his wife before the South Carolina primary. “The mistake that I made is to think that I was a spouse like any other spouse," he said in an interview with a TV reporter in Maine. "I can promote Hillary but not defend her, because I was president." The ex-leader of the free world told WCSH of Portland that he “learned a valuable lesson from all that dust-up.” He added the campaign was not his, and the presidency would not be his: “I don’t want to be the story.” Clinton rejected charges he personally attacked Barack Obama, saying "I never criticized him personally." (More Bill Clinton stories.) Report an error