Bill Clinton described his wife yesterday as a tough public figure, a woman who, in the face of relentless Republican attacks, nonetheless managed to be a "change agent" on health care and education.

"If people think she's a little too edgy, I'd ask them to just remember what she's been through in the last 15 years," Bill Clinton said. "Many people would have been broken by what they did to her. Everything that Kenneth Starr and that crowd charged her with, every single thing has proved to be baseless."

Clinton's comments - which he made in a nearly two-hour-long interview with Monitor editors and a reporter - come as his wife's campaign attempts to acquaint New Hampshire voters with Hillary Clinton's more personal side. The "Hillary I Know" effort showcases the Democratic presidential candidate's longtime friends and colleagues, along with individuals (including a ground zero emergency worker) Hillary Clinton aided during her political life.

Yesterday's interview was purportedly an opportunity for Clinton to make the case for his wife's candidacy, and he depicted her as a "genius" at "taking good intentions and turning them into positive change." But the wide-ranging interview also gave Clinton time to ruminate on Denmark's economy, job creation in the United Kingdom and the Republican presidential race, which he described as up for grabs. ("It's not clear that any of them have been eliminated yet," he said.)

Assessing his wife's position, Clinton took a page out of her campaign playbook, arguing that Hillary Clinton's longtime visibility will dampen the effect of political attacks. "They can hardly say anything bad about her that people haven't already been told," he said. "So I think she'll do fine."

But swipes from other Republican and Democratic candidates could harm her standing among independent voters, Clinton said. "I think independents are absolutely pivotal to our political system," he said. "But they don't like politics; that's why they're independents. So to them, you become polarizing if someone else attacks you."

The Democratic presidential contest has tightened in recent weeks, with some opinion polls in New Hampshire and Iowa suggesting that the race is a toss-up. Earlier this week on The Charlie Rose Show, Clinton stepped into the fray when he questioned Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's political experience and wondered whether voters were willing to "roll the dice" on a candidate.

For the most part, Clinton held his fire yesterday, describing the Illinois senator as a "smart, attractive" candidate who is running "a Chicago-tough campaign." But he suggested that Obama's position in head-to-head poll match-ups with Republicans (a recent Monitor poll showed Obama faring best among the three highest-polling Democrats) resulted from "months of exceedingly favorable publicity."

Although Clinton said that last year's conventional wisdom had Hillary Clinton handily winning the primary and losing the general election due to her "polarizing nature," he long predicted the reverse: A tough primary campaign and easy general election race. "That's still what I think," he said.

Clinton pointed to both her gender and to longtime opponents of his administration to explain his wife's detractors. "When I left office, the people that spawned all that hatred against me didn't have me to kick around anymore," he said. "They needed an object for their derision."

Later, Clinton remarked that "some people just don't like a strong woman, I guess." Hillary Clinton "is very firm," he said. "Part of what you need in a president people find more unsettling in a woman than a man, maybe."

But opponents haven't stopped the New York senator from effectively pushing legislative change - Clinton pointed to his wife's efforts to combat climate change with Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona - or from generating goodwill internationally, he said.

All of the Democratic candidates "would be markedly better" on foreign policy than the Bush administration, he said. "But she would be the best, largely because she's so well known and highly regarded by leaders and people in the streets."

Other Democratic candidates have raised questions about the extent to which Hillary Clinton's years as first lady helped prepare her for the presidency. As first lady, she not only filled the "traditional role" of overseeing social events and holiday celebrations, but she served as a sort of ambassador for the nation, Clinton said. In addition, he said, she championed causes, highlighting the need for better medical care for veterans suffering from combat-related illnesses.

Describing his wife's failed effort to reform the nation's health care system, Clinton focused on the political realities of the time.

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