Bill and Hillary Clinton urge Iowa voters to back another term in the White House

The force dubbed "Billary" _ the duo of former President Clinton and his leading Democratic candidate wife _ argued on Tuesday for a third term in the White House, telling Iowa voters a return to the Clinton years is the best remedy for the Bush era.

"Yesterday's news was pretty good," said Bill Clinton, referring to his time in office and taking a jab at critics who call the former first couple old news.

In a joint appearance, the Clintons sought to give Hillary Rodham Clinton the advantages of quasi-incumbency while portraying her as an agent of change. It's a difficult balance in Iowa, site of the first caucus and where Sen. Clinton faces a tough challenge from two fresher faces: Barack Obama and John Edwards.

"I know that some of you are very excited about the fact that we have a chance to make history together and elect the first woman president in the United States," she said, drawing the most enthusiastic applause of her half-hour speech. "Well, I'm excited by that, too. But I'm not running because I'm a woman. I'm running because I think I'm the best qualified and experienced person to hit the ground running in January 2009."

She said a friend told her it's time for a woman president because the White House needs to be cleaned, and she doesn't mind the work. "Let's get to work and clean out the Bush-Cheney administration," she said to applause from her partisan audience.

Her husband reminded the crowd of a couple of thousand at the University of Iowa of the economic prosperity during his two terms and ticked off a list of accomplishments on the environment, college aid and establishment of the Family and Medical Leave Act.

The former president made sure to try to keep the focus on her, making a glowing nine-minute introduction at the rally, then stepping off the stage during her performance. She used her time to criticize President Bush's record. The New York senator, born in the Chicago suburbs, also talked about her family and Midwestern values.

The joint appearance during their three-day trip to Iowa came as Hillary Clinton's aura of inevitability took a hit this week. Obama outraised her by $10 million in second-quarter contributions that can be spent on the Democratic primary contest.

The Clintons appearance also came six weeks after an internal campaign memo contended that she should skip the Iowa caucuses and concentrate on other early states where she has a better chance of winning. Clinton, who trails 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards in Iowa polls, dismissed the memo and said she would compete.

In her appearance, Hillary Clinton didn't shy from discussing her controversial role as health policy adviser in his administration, saying she is determined to make sure every American has quality, affordable health care.

Clinton said she soon will meet with doctors, nurses, hospital administrators and patients to get their input on her health care plan.

"I'm convinced that the time has come for us to do this," she said.

While Bill Clinton offered the highlights of his presidency, the lowlights weren't far away.

In a brief telephone interview with The Associated Press, Hillary Clinton drew a distinction between Bush's decision to commute the sentence of White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby _ which she has harshly criticized _ and her husband's 140 pardons in his closing hours in office.

"I believe that presidential pardon authority is available to any president, and almost all presidents have exercised it," Clinton told the AP. "This (the Libby decision) was clearly an effort to protect the White House. ... There isn't any doubt now, what we know is that Libby was carrying out the implicit or explicit wishes of the vice president, or maybe the president as well, in the further effort to stifle dissent."

At the university rally, Bill Clinton also called his wife the most qualified and said he watched her make a difference in people's lives as first lady in Arkansas and the White House.

"We sort of changed roles now. For our first 20 some years we knew each other, I was in politics and Hillary was a public servant without public office," he said.

The Clintons made a point of refusing to publicly criticize her opponents in the race.

"You don't have to be against anybody in the Democratic primary this time," she said. "But you will eventually have to make a choice, and I hope that I can be your choice for this caucus."

The Clintons' Iowa tour was tightly scripted with limited media access. They arrived Monday night for a rally on the Iowa State Fairgrounds, then spent much of Tuesday morning out of public view.

Campaign staff said they had breakfast with more than 300 caucusgoers and stopped at a roadside Dairy Queen where he had a chicken sandwich and she a Snickers Blizzard, but they did not include press coverage of those events.

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Associated Press writer Mike Glover in Iowa contributed to this report.

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