With his wife sidelined, Bill Clinton steps in to fill void

Former President Bill Clinton hobnobbed with wealthy donors at a pair of Beverly Hills fundraisers, including a $100,000-per-couple dinner at the home of designer Diane Von Furstenberg.

Other than a prime-time speech at the Democratic convention, Bill Clinton's general election schedule has been purposely low-key, reflecting the Clinton campaign's desire to keep him from overshadowing his wife or creating unnecessary distractions.

For all his political gifts, Bill Clinton has been an imperfect messenger on his wife's health this week.

A spokesman said he misspoke and meant pneumonia, but such moments provide grist to conspiracy theorists who think Hillary Clinton is hiding health issues.

Hillary Clinton's aides have spent the general election warily waiting to see if Republican Donald Trump makes good on his promises to turn the former president's extramarital affairs into a campaign issue.

Republican Rick Tyler, who worked on Ted Cruz's 2016 presidential bid, said that if Trump does raise those issues, they will "fall on deaf ears."

While the former president has been more disciplined than during his wife's failed 2008 campaign, he still finds ways to create unwanted distractions, most notably when he met with Attorney General Loretta Lynch in the midst of the Justice Department's investigation into his wife's email practices.

Lynch characterized the conversation as social, but acknowledged the meeting "cast a shadow" on the public's perception of the case.