posted September 23, 2008 08:48 PM            

Mr. Clinton did not run that year, he added, because “I really didn’t think I knew enough, and had served enough and done enough to run.”

The former president quickly noted that he did not mean Mr. Obama should not be pursuing the nomination. But he said that compared to Mr. Obama, who went from the Illinois Legislature to the United States Senate in 2005, Mr. Clinton had far more experience when he finally did run in 1992, as governor of Arkansas for nearly 12 years and as a leader of national policy initiatives.

Bill Burton, a spokesman for Senator Obama, replied forcefully but without challenging Mr. Clinton personally.

“Senator Obama has over two decades of the experience America needs right now,” Mr. Burton said in a statement. “When it comes to restoring America’s image in the world, America needs a president who made the most important foreign policy decision of a generation based on what was right for America, not the politics of the moment.”

As a former president, Mr. Clinton can draw attention like no other spouse of a candidate, and his pronouncements about presidential experience may carry weight with Democratic primary voters, given that he was nominated and won office twice.

On the campaign trail this year, he has been almost entirely complimentary about Mr. Obama and the other Democratic candidates — though, at some private events last spring, he was derisive about Mr. Obama’s criticism of Mrs. Clinton’s early support for the Iraq war.

In the new interview, however, Mr. Clinton was backed into his remarks about Mr. Obama somewhat. Mr. Hunt read him a line from Mrs. Clinton’s autobiography, in which she recalled that some people initially dismissed Mr. Clinton in 1992 as “too young and inexperienced.” Mr. Hunt then noted that some view Mr. Obama the same way today.

A spokesman for Mrs. Clinton’s campaign declined to comment on Mr. Clinton’s remarks.

In the interview, Mr. Clinton also analyzed the Republican nomination fight. He said “the real question” in that race was whether former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts would maintain his lead in opinion polls in Iowa and New Hampshire through New Year’s Day.

“If he does, but he doesn’t move to second in the national polls, then the whole thing is going to be determined, in my opinion, by whether Iowa and New Hampshire voters stick with him from New Year’s Day through voting,” Mr. Clinton said.

Several of Mrs. Clinton’s advisers have said in interviews with The Times that they believe at this point that Mr. Romney will be the Republican nominee.

Mr. Clinton also said that former Senator Fred Thompson had “a great manner and that macho stuff” that Republican voters “love,” but suggested that Mr. Thompson had hurt himself with his recent comments about Osama bin Laden and Terri Schiavo.

He described Rudolph W. Giuliani as proving “more durable than I thought he would” as a candidate, and said John McCain was “an admirable human being” who “deserves to be a major candidate in this race.” And he said his fellow former governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, was “the best speaker” in the Republican field and had “sort of an outside chance” at the nomination.