Clinton Stumps for Obama in Green Bay Tonight

Former President Bill Clinton campaigns on behalf of the current president in Green Bay Friday. It’s Clinton’s speech at 8 tonight on the UW-Green Bay campus will be his first visit to northeastern Wisconsin since 1996 when he was running for re-election.

He’ll speak on behalf of President Barack Obama. A St. Norbert College Political Scientist, Wendy Scattergood, says it’s a sign the race in Wisconsin between Obama and Mitt Romney is heating up, “Wisconsin and our ten electoral votes could actually really make the difference.”

In contrast to Clinton’s role as a campaign surrogate, former President George W. Bush has not been enlisted by Romney. Scattergood says Clinton is still popular especially among Democrats, “He’s a good speaker, he’s very articulate about it. And because the economy was good during his time period. So the more you can sort of ride that coattail the better. And that’s another sort of reason for the distancing in the Republican Party from George W. Bush. If you look at the polls on whose fault is this? The American public rightly or wrongly blame George W. Bush for the beginning of the recession.”

Scattergood heads the St. Norbert College Survey Center, which will begin polling Wisconsin voters later this month after the last presidential debate.Results will be released in early November on Wisconsin Public Radio.