Bill Clinton New Hampshire, Makes Pitch in NH

J. Walter Green, AP

From Ike to the Clintons: New Hampshire primary greatest hits - Bill Clinton has not backed off the harsher criticism of Bernie Sanders of Vermont. In fact, he feels good about it.

After speaking to a small crowd at the Governor’s Inn & Restaurant here, Mr. Clinton was asked if his wife’s campaign needed to adapt its message to take on Mr. Sanders, the insurgent democratic socialist from Vermont.

“No, I think we’ve got a lot of breaks here,” he said. “Whatever happens with the vote, this is the first time that a lot of facts have come out in the open that allowed us to have an honest debate.”

Hillary Clinton trails Mr. Sanders by double digits in most polls in New Hampshire, but for Mr. Clinton appearing in the Live Free or Die State allowed his wife’s campaign to put increased pressure on a relatively untested opponent. Mr. Clinton had expressed concerns in Iowa that Mr. Sanders had built up a following of young voters and small-dollar donors without much scrutiny on his record or plans.

“You can’t have a debate with somebody if every time you raise the question, ‘Oh, you’re part of the establishment, you’re attacking me,'” Mr. Clinton said. “All we need is a conversation about what policies are best and who has the best chance of enacting them and I trust the voters.”

“I feel like only in the last four or five days,” Mr. Clinton continued, “we are finally moving into territory when we talk about things that are part of the public record.”

Asked if he thought Mr. Sanders had not been vetted by the news media, Mr. Clinton demurred. “I’m not going to get into that,” he said. “You know what my position is,” Mr. Clinton continued. “Same rule for everybody, that’s all I have to say. Applies to me, everybody.”

In his remarks to the crowd, Mr. Clinton said voters had to choose between “a change talker or a change maker.”

“I’m glad Senator Sanders has come here talking about inequality,” said Mr. Clinton, who at one point held up charts about income distribution during his administration compared with Republican administrations. “I don’t think there’s been a day in the past 20 years that I haven’t talked about it.”

Mr. Clinton did not criticize Mr. Sanders as pointedly as he did at a rally in Milford, N.H., on Sunday, when he said Mrs. Clinton’s opponent was “hermetically sealed” and dishonest, and he accused Mr. Sanders’s supporters of engaging in “sexist” attacks against anyone supporting Mrs. Clinton.

“When you’re making a revolution, you can’t be too careful with the facts,” Mr. Clinton said at the Milford rally.

On Monday, Mr. Clinton framed his critique of Mr. Sanders in a more hopeful message. “This is a race because people are really mad and they’re scared about the future,” he said. “The problem with being mad is it doesn’t get you anywhere unless you have an answer.”

“We’ve got to move from anger to answers, from resentment to empowerment,” he said, adding, “It’s unfortunate we can’t have a debate without rancor.”