People who suggest Bill Clinton might be hurting his wife's presidential bid more than helping it are overlooking the small towns where he draws adoring crowds of Democrats who wish he could serve a third term.

While the former president has angered some blacks with his comments about race, many voters in North Carolina, Indiana and elsewhere express deep affection for him. They often cite him as their reason for backing Hillary Rodham Clinton over Barack Obama.

The seven campaign stops that Bill Clinton made Saturday in Indiana would exhaust many politicians half his age. Sunday was his day of relative rest, with a mere six stops in Western North Carolina before the nine scheduled for today.

In a week, he will have made 43 speeches in three states. Nearly all take place in towns too small to justify visits by Obama or Hillary Clinton, but places that nonetheless are home to thousands of potential voters.

The former president insisted on the frantic pace, recently admonishing aides to schedule more events for him as the primary season winds down with Indiana and North Carolina voting Tuesday.

But those who say Clinton might damage his wife's campaign have probably spent little time in the towns he visits. He routinely draws adoring crowds who wait hours for him to arrive.

A headline last week in the News Herald of Morganton read: "Bill Clinton's brief touchdown in Burke elicits hysteria."

The account of "high-pitched shrieks and whoops" from fans who "jumped up and down in excitement" as his plane taxied was all the more remarkable because Clinton didn't even speak in Morganton or Burke County. He simply used the airport to reach four other Western North Carolina towns, including Boone, where 2,000 people filled a gym at Appalachian State University.

And at two stops Sunday -- one in Lenoir and the other in Marion -- crowd members fainted, prompting Clinton to quip: "At my age, I didn't think I could make anybody faint anymore."

Still, some party activists see Clinton's small-town tour as a banishment by campaign chiefs weary of his penchant for antagonizing key constituents, especially blacks. Clinton infuriated many when he likened Obama's South Carolina victory to earlier victories by Jesse Jackson, whose appeal to non-black voters was limited.

The comments, and the Clintons' tenacious fight against Obama, drew a rebuke from Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., Congress's highest-ranking black leader.

Nonetheless, many say his efforts are clearly a net plus for his wife. Few would disagree in the small North Carolina towns Clinton has visited.

Tracy Monroe, who is black and owns a hair salon in Sanford, said she is torn between Obama and Clinton. Obama inspires her, she said, "but I personally like Hillary Clinton because I liked her husband as president."