Bill Clinton raises $350,000 for Hillary in Utah

Former President Bill Clinton raised $350,000 for his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, on Sunday — even more than campaign officials had expected.

While most of the campaign cash came from a private fund-raising event at a home in Park City, some 1,500 Utahns contributed a total of $50,000 to hear Bill Clinton back his wife's candidacy at the University of Utah's student union ballroom.

What Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., can offer voters, he said, is the ability to bridge the partisan divide and deal with such issues as rebuilding an American military depleted by the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as improve the country's standing in the world.

The United States, he said, must have a leader who can send a clear message that the country "is back in the cooperation business, the diplomacy business ... She'll do that more quickly than anyone else."

From the Republican senators who work with her in Washington, D.C., to the farmers in upstate New York who switched parties to elect her, Hillary Clinton is someone they know, "not the cartoon character," Bill Clinton said.

He said, for example, she is polling strongly in his home state of Arkansas, "a certified red state," even though former governor, Mike Huckabee, is seeking the Republican presidential nomination.

"She can win," Bill Clinton said, drawing cheers and applause and even a few shouts of "I love you Bill" from an appreciative crowd that included many of the state's current and former Democratic office-holders.