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'Thin' Clinton shines for Kerry
26/10/2004 08:35 - (SA)
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| Former President Bill Clinton speaks during a massive campaign rally for John Kerry in Philadelphia on Monday. (Jacqueline Larma, AP) |
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Philadelphia - It was vintage Bill Clinton, a lip-biting, thumb-wagging, centre-of-attention performance.
Seven weeks after quadruple bypass heart surgery, looking pale and unusually thin, the former president came back to give fellow Democrat John Kerry a sendoff for the final week of the campaign - promoting his own presidency as well - and bluntly framed the campaign between the Massachusetts senator and President George W Bush.
"You've got a clear choice between two strong men with great convictions and philosophies, different policies with very different consequences for this city, this state, our nation and the world," Clinton told thousands of Democrats crammed shoulder-to-shoulder inside three city blocks.
Nobody seemed to notice that he had just called Bush strong, with equal billing to Kerry.
Then again, few in the crowd seemed to be there to hear Kerry who, according to polls, is supported by a political base united in its disdain for Bush more than its enthusiasm for the Democratic nominee.
Answer was obvious
"Who did I come to see?" asked Lisa Jackson, 44, of Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, in a tone that suggested the answer was obvious. "Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton. I can see John Kerry any time, but this is Bill Clinton."
Clinton plans to campaign without Kerry this weekend in the tossup states of Nevada and New Mexico as well as his home state of Arkansas, a Republican-leaning state where polls suggest that Bush's lead has shrunk.
Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky made him a political pariah in Democrat Al Gore's race against Bush four years ago, but now the former president has higher approval ratings than Bush or Kerry in some polls.
There were flashes of Clinton at his best from the moment he took the stage with Kerry, waving to the crowd before acknowledging the applause and his medical recovery with one 12-word opening.
"If this isn't good for my heart," he said, putting his hand to his chest, "I don't know what is."
And so began a speech that ran about 1 400 words, nearly half as long as the one to follow from Kerry.
"From time to time, I have been called the Comeback Kid. In eight days, John Kerry's going to make America the comeback country," he said.
Statistics
In making his case for Kerry, Clinton used a rhetorical tool that dates to his days as Arkansas' governor: statistics. Nobody uses numbers like Clinton. "In Pennsylvania alone, you've lost 70 000 jobs as compared with the 219 000 you gained by this time when that last fellow was president - me," he said.
When both speeches were done, Clinton grabbed Kerry by the shoulder and pointed to the crowd on its feet. Then he pointed offstage. You shake hands, he was saying, while I leave.
Indeed, Clinton started to walk past a flurry of hands reaching for his. Then he stopped, touched his heart and reached tentatively into the throng.
- AP
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