Kirtland, OH—

While campaigning for his wife in the Buckeye state, President Bill Clinton told a crowd in a university gym that he has some “trepidation” at these events, but that he owes his wife for all the years she campaigned for him:

“I love doing this because Hillary campaigned for me from 1974 until I left the White House and I’ve only had the chance to campaign for her–after all she never ran for public office,” Clinton said, “She was a public servant her whole life. She never ran for public office until 2000 so as you can see I’m still a few years behind I’m trying to make up.”

While campaigning in this must-win state–with former Senator John Glenn and Governor Ted Strickland–he told a mix of supporters and undecided voters that he likes visiting smaller communities leaving Hillary to hit the big cities:

“I like to go out into the small towns, into the rural areas, into the places the politicians don’t often go and I want Hillary to go to Cleveland, Columbus, and all your other big cities and be on the T.V. and get her name and message out to the largest number of people, but I know that this state is won or lost in the heartland of Ohio in places like this and I plan to be here. “

At his last stop of five rallies yesterday he said it was up to the voters of Ohio to bring victory for his wife– adding a new final pitch:

“You say yes to Hillary you can nominate her, you can elect her and if she comes home in Ohio and it is a new day!”

Chillicothe, OH—

At a rally in Springfield President Clinton was introduced by the First Lady of the state, Frances Strickland. Talking optimistically, she said that her husband, Governor Ted Strickland, was excited to start working with Senator Clinton when she goes to the White House. But, that as First Lady she is looking forward to working with Bill Clinton. Strickland noted that Clinton has never been First Lady before and that she wanted to give him some tips including that some people just don’t know who you are:

“I might tell him there are a few little things he has to get used to and one thing is sometimes people get your titles mixed,” Strickland continued to chuckles from the crowd, “Like the other day I had my picture taken with a young girl and a couple of days later they gave a copy of the picture to her and they said to her, ‘How does it feel to get your picture taken with the first lady?’ She said, ‘First lady? I don’t know anything about a First Lady. I thought she was the queen mother!’”

The joke got a roar from the crowd and was quickly followed up by one from Clinton. He told an anecdote from when he was visiting Ohio as President and he went to visit an elementary school. He met a six year old who was surprised to see the President in the flesh asking Clinton, “Are you really the President?” Clinton continued with the story, I said, ‘Yes I am.’ He said, ‘But you aren’t dead yet!’ And I realized you know to him a President was George Washington or Abraham Lincoln or something, his definition of a President was a dead white guy and we are going to have a different president than we ever had!”

On March 4th the country may finally get closer to finding out exactly which nominee the Democratic party will put up to buck the “dead white guy” trend. Of course, looking at where his campaign was last summer one could argue John McCain is the definition of the candidate who has come back from the dead.

Keeping a candidate on message is hard enough for a campaign — but even a perfect day can be ruined by factors beyond their control.

Take Hillary Clinton for example. She stayed frighteningly on message on Sunday and made zero news at any of her campaign stops, but still had a bad news day because two top surrogates — her daughter Chelsea and OH Gov Ted Strickland — went rogue.

Chelsea snubbed a 9 year old girl on the ropeline, while Strickland, who campaigned with Hillary in Iowa on Saturday, dissed the Hawkeye State’s first in the nation status, telling the Columbus Dispatch it “makes no sense.”

Clinton spokesman Jay Carson says the Senator has enjoyed the caucus process and the opportunity it provides to meet voters one-on-one. “She’s happy to have Gov Strickland’s endorsement, but she strenuously disagrees” with his remarks, he said.

Check out some video of Strickland talking up Iowa with Sen Clinton on the stump on Saturday.

Barack Obama wasn’t the only Democrat making the electability argument on the stump today. Hillary Clinton brought OH Gov Ted Strickland with her to 5 campaign stops in Iowa to make the case, both visually and rhetorically, that she can win support in even the traditionally red states.

“When Governor Strickland decided to endorse me, it was a great personal endorsement because of my high regard for him,” she said in Eldridge, IA. “But it also said something about who he believes is best prepared to actually run and win in a state like Ohio, which we need to win in order to take back the White House.”

Asked by reporters about Obama’s claim that he’s a better general election candidate because she starts with 50% of the country opposed to her, Sen Clinton said “he can make his argument, that’s clearly his prerogative. I’ve been around awhile, I’ve seen elections come and go.”

“Whoever our Democratic nominee is will be subjected to the full force and effect of the Republican attack machine. Unfortunately, that is the barrier that you have to overcome. What you know with me is that I’ve already overcome it. I have withstood it, and not only survived it, but thrived,” she said.

“If you look at the breadth and depth of support I have, you know, the nine Senators who support me, governors like Governor Strickland, Governor Beebe of Arkansas, so many others. They are not on a political suicide mission. They are professionals. They are assessing each and every one of us. And they are concluding, number one, I would be the best president, and number two, I am the Democrat who is most likely to be elected.”