Former President Bill Clinton speaks with reporters as arrives at the home of ex-Providence Mayor Joseph Paolino yesterday for a fundraiser for his wife’s presidential campaign.

The Providence Journal / Bill Murphy Bill Murphy

PROVIDENCE — Rhode Islanders have seen many faces of Bill Clinton — president, campaigner, Democratic Party leader, world AIDS advocate, fundraiser, vacationer, mourner — since he first came to the state in December, 1991 to attend a University Club event to raise campaign cash for his successful 1992 presidential campaign.

Yesterday, Clinton was back in the state, this time to harvest more than $200,000 in campaign money for the presidential campaign of his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, at a fundraising luncheon at the home of the former Providence Mayor Joseph R. Paolino Jr., who also hosted Clinton’s 1991 fundraiser.

The state’s top Democrats all showed up at the event and Senator Clinton picked up the endorsement yesterday of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the state’s freshman Democrat.

“I’m proud to endorse Senator Hillary Clinton to be our next president,” Whitehouse said in a statement. “Her smart, tough, experienced leadership will be critically important as we work to bring our troops home from Iraq, reform our health-care system to cover more families and solve the energy challenges of the 21st century.”

Whitehouse joins Rep. James Langevin in backing Senator Clinton. Rep. Patrick Kennedy is supporting Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd and Sen. Jack Reed has yet to make a presidential endorsement.

Clinton, who as a former president still has U.S. Secret Service protection, swooped into the city’s East Side shortly after 11:30 a.m. and spoke to a crowd of more than 200 in Paolino’s sun-splashed backyard.

Reporters were not allowed into the event, but Clinton held a brief press availability with a scrum of radio, television and print reporters camped out across Orchard Avenue from Paolino’s house.

“I love it here, people have been so good to me… Rhode Island is a special place,” said Mr. Clinton “This state supported me strongly and I hope they will support Hillary.”

Clinton touted his wife’s performance in Sunday’s Democratic presidential candidate debate in New Hampshire, site of the leadoff presidential primary next January. “She had a good debate, her second debate and she is out working hard.”

Questioned about what his role would be if his wife wins the presidency, Clinton gave his stock, husbandly answer.

“First of all, I’ll do whatever I’m asked to do, I think that’s the important thing. If Hillary were elected, she would have to make that decision,” said Clinton. “I would do whatever… I’d probably be best trying to help restore American’s image in the world.”

On the Iraq war, Clinton defended his wife, who has been sharply criticized by many liberal Democrats because she supported the 2002 resolution that gave President Bush authority to invade Iraq.

“I think what Hillary said and most of the other Democrats have said is right. I think we have to take down most of our combat troops as quickly as we responsibly can,” said Clinton.

As for establishing a timetable for pulling troops out, Clinton said that is a moot question so long as Mr. Bush remains in office. “Well, we are not going to get that because the president is opposed to it.”

Still, Clinton predicted that the Bush administration would soon be forced to change policy in Iraq.

“If you just look at the strains on our Army and Marine Corps now, we are now training Navy personnel in ground combat, including target practice, because we don’t have enough people if an emergency were to arise,” said Clinton.

“So I think that no matter what happens I’ll predict to you that the president will withdraw some of these ground forces by the end of the year,” said Clinton, “because we have to restore our military. And we have to have some more people available if they are needed in Afghanistan to avoid a resurgence of the Taliban and al Qaida.”

“Whether we were for or against this... we now have a certain responsibility not to make it any worse,” said Clinton. The United States should leave a “modest force” in Iraq to stabilize that restive country, he said.

“I think we made a big mistake by not allowing the U.N. inspectors to do their work,” said Clinton, criticizing Mr. Bush’s original decision to prosecute the war in Iraq.

Dressed in a blue suit, white shirt and gold tie, the ruddy-faced and once-portly Clinton is trimmer than he was during his White House years. Since leaving office in 2001, he has had heart bypass surgery and now watches his diet.

As president in the 1990s, Clinton came to Rhode Island often to campaign for various Democratic Party candidates, including Reed and Kennedy, to boost his ill-fated 1993 health-care plan, to mourn at the late Sen. John Chafee’s funeral in Providence , to tout his environmental policies in Newport, to speak at Brown University, to visit Block Island and to campaign for his own 1996 reelection.

He has a group of local friends and political allies, a list that includes Paolino, Democratic activists Mark and Susan Weiner of East Greenwich and Ira and Suzanne Magaziner of Bristol.

Among those in attendance yesterday were Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis, Mayor David N. Cicilline, former Boston Mayor Ray Flynn, former Gov. Bruce Sundlun, a slew of State House Democrats and such Providence fixtures as former Councilman Thomas O’Connor and current Council members Michael Solomon and John Lombardi.

Clinton has emerged as his wife’s strategist-in-chief. While Hillary Clinton has led in most published public-opinion polls, some of them tightened in recent weeks, with gains for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, and some even showing significant support for Al Gore, Clinton’s vice president.

“I think it is hard to lead from wire to wire,” said Clinton. “You guys have got to cover this a long time, this is a long race. You can only ask the same issue questions so many times and everybody wants a horse race.”

“She has such enormous discipline and great concentration of mind and heart,” said Clinton. “She just keeps talking about the issues and the things that affect real people’s lives.”

smackay@projo.com