How will Bill Clinton play this time around?

Does Bill Clinton still have the magic?

He returned to the presidential campaign trail this week, stumping for four or eight more years in the White House, this time as First Gentleman. Or, as his wife joked, perhaps First Mate or First Dude.

In his prime, there was nobody better. He ate up life on the campaign trail. The cameras, the crowds, the cheering, the handshaking, the baby-kissing. Clinton was incomplete without them, like John McEnroe without an umpire to yell at.

That was a long time ago, though, and today Clinton might be as much of a risk as a benefit to his wife’s campaign. For one thing, at his first solo stops of the campaign in New Hampshire on Monday, he looked thin and old, and displayed little of the charisma that used to sweep through every room he entered (including at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte less than four years ago, when he generated more excitement than President Obama himself). He looked more suited for reading a story to his granddaughter than riling up a crowd of voters.

When he returns to the trail in Iowa on Thursday, perhaps he will have shaken off the cobwebs. But more indelible things can’t be shaken off. The 1990s now seem like the good ol’ days in a lot of ways, but Clinton’s appearance on the campaign trail is emblematic of the past for many voters who are eager to look to the future.

An even bigger problem for Hillary Clinton: Her husband’s presence on the trail dredges up memories of his insatiable womanizing. That was irrelevant to many of his supporters when he was president, and so surely will be only more so decades later when he’s not even the one on the ballot.

Republicans, however, will try to use that history to dent Clinton’s advantage among female voters, a gap that could be crucial in a close race. Republican Donald Trump, no friend to women himself, has been most eager so far. He called Bill “one of the great woman abusers of all time” and labeled Hillary as his “enabler.”

It’s easy to dismiss Trump as Trump. But he and his fellow Republicans will continue to invoke Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky, Paula Jones and Juanita Broaddrick, from now to November. Given their own unpopularity with female voters, Republicans will see Bill Clinton’s history as an irresistible equalizer. They don’t have to convert women to them; they just have to scare off enough to give them a fighting chance.

On Monday, Bill Clinton was uncharacteristically reserved. He played up what he portrayed as his long-running deep love for his wife. When asked whether his dalliances were fair game, he gave a vanilla answer about Hillary being the best candidate.

They can both try to ignore the issue, and probably will. But 10 months is a long time to duck.

This story was originally published January 5, 2016 at 5:49 PM with the headline "How will Bill Clinton play this time around?."