Former President Bill Clinton waves to a cheering crowd as he arrives Monday for a campaign stop for his wife, Hillary Clinton.

NASHUA, N.H. — Former President Bill Clinton made his debut solo appearance on behalf of his wife’s 2016 presidential campaign in New Hampshire Monday — a lot grayer, a bit trimmer and far more subdued than nearly a qu+arter-century ago, when he rescued his flagging 1992 campaign in this key early voting state.

While Bill Clinton was keen to keep the focus on Hillary Clinton’s key campaign platforms, the passing time hasn’t shielded him from the ghosts that haunted his own presidency. Republican front-runner Donald Trump has gone on the offensive in recent days with attacks over his impeachment and decades-old sex scandal.

Both Clintons aimed for higher ground, even on policy. Asked in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, about Trump’s remark that Hillary Clinton helped create the Islamic State group, she replied: “I’ve adopted a New Year’s resolution. I’m going to let him live in his alternative reality and I’m not going to respond.”

In Manchester, N.H., meanwhile, Bill Clinton mingled with a lunchtime crowd at a popular eatery while a news station playing above his head ran captioned video questioning whether he could avoid Trump’s flagrant attacks — and that’s just what he did.

“They have to choose a nominee and we have a primary to win,” he said when asked about Trump and the broader Republican field.