"We need to do what we did in the 1990s and make sure people's incomes are going up and not down," Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, said during a recent rally in Philadelphia. "We need to do what a guy named Bill Clinton did in the 1990s and put people first again."

Obama's comments about Clinton's presidency differ from ones he made during the Democratic primaries, when he was running against Clinton's wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, The Boston Globe reported Friday. Obama argued Bill Clinton let some of the country's biggest problems worsen despite economic successes the country enjoyed during his presidency.

Bill Carrick, a strategist who worked on both of Clinton' presidential campaigns, said his legacy was awkward for both Hillary Clinton and Obama in the primaries, the Globe said. It was tricky for Hillary Clinton because she didn't want to praise all of his efforts while Obama couldn't offer wholesale criticism.

Now, "Senator Obama probably has a much higher comfort level saying, 'Look, we were going gangbusters in the '90s, and here, what happened?'," Carrick said.