Campaign Insider.

By KAREN TUMULTY

It feels a bit like the old days. A Bush is in the White House, the economy is teetering, and a Clinton is claiming to be able to fix it. And as before, Gene Sperling is right in the middle of things.

The famously rumpled, workaholic Sperling rose from Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign war room to become his chief economic-policy adviser, and he now works as one of the most visible advisers to Hillary Clinton's campaign. He trained as a lawyer but developed a passion for economic policy in the wake of the Democrats' 1980 presidential defeat. "I felt the Democrats were not portraying themselves as being both fighters for equity and believers in growth and optimism," Sperling says.

The economy has become far more complicated in the past 16 years. "It's a harder issue now not only because of the temporary housing crisis we're in but because you have a broader sense of economic anxiety," Sperling says. "In 1992, people were worried they were staying in the same place. In 2008, people have a real fear of falling."

Now a married father, Sperling is teased by his wife that advising Clinton is one of "five full-time jobs" he holds, including his work on education in the developing world. (Angelina Jolie is a partner in one project.) But Sperling still makes it home most nights to put his 23-month-old daughter to bed before logging in a few more hours for the campaign. "Sleep does lose out," he admits. "At 49, I don't handle a four-hour-sleep night as well as I did at 32."