Clinton, Giuliani lend celebrity support

PHILADELPHIA - Like an old champion fighter on the comeback trail, Bill Clinton returned to the fray of the US election campaign yesterday - just seven weeks after the emergency heart surgery that threatened to sideline the most effective campaigner in American politics.

Up to 20,000 roaring and cheering supporters packed into the streets around Love Park in the centre of Philadelphia to see a somewhat gaunt Clinton add some charisma and political weight to Senator John Kerry's campaign a week before voters go to the polls.

Clinton's performance may have been but a shadow of the bravura display he delivered at the Democratic convention in Boston in the summer but his mere presence delighted the crowds who screamed as he and Kerry appeared on-stage.

"If that's not good for my heart I don't know what is," beamed Clinton, putting his hand to his chest. He added: "From time to time I've been called the 'Comeback Kid'. In eight days, John Kerry is going to make America the Comeback Country."

President George W. Bush received some star enhancement of his own, campaigning with the popular former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani at his side.

He criticised Kerry's strategy of "pessimism and retreat" and told voters in Colorado that "in every critical respect, my opponent and I see the war on terror differently".

With national polls showing Kerry and Bush neck and neck, the senator had turned to Clinton to help appeal to undecided voters.

"Senator Kerry asked me to do it," Clinton told ABC. "And I want to do it ... because it's close, and because I think it's important, and because the differences between the two candidates and the courses they will pursue in the next four years are so profound."

It was less than two months ago that Clinton underwent quadruple bypass surgery. While it was obvious yesterday Clinton was restraining himself, it was equally clear he had not lost his unequalled ability to connect with a crowd and to deliver the succinct and powerful verbal punch that the Kerry campaign has often lacked.

"You've got clear choice between two strong men of clear convictions, of different philosophies and different choices [which will have] very different consequences for the state, the nation and the world," he declared.

"The other side, they're trying to scare the undecided voters about Senator Kerry, and they're trying to scare the decided voters away from the polls. One of Clinton's laws of politics is this: If one candidate's trying to scare you, and the other one's trying to get you to think; if one candidate's appealing to your fears, and the other one's appealing to your hopes; you better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope."

Strategists from the Kerry campaign believe Clinton's presence could give them a boost with undecided voters: a poll commissioned by the Wall Street Journal gave him a 48 per cent positive rating, higher than either Kerry or Bush.

But they were also counting on Clinton's presence to remind voters of the boom years of the 90s when unemployment was lower and the Government had a surplus, not a deficit.

Kerry was quick to claim that America had been in a better economic situation when Clinton was President.

Bush, meanwhile, ratcheted up his criticism of Kerry's approach to the war on terror and said Iraq was a key battlefront.

"Will America return to the defensive, reactive mind-set that sought to manage the dangers to our country? Or will we fight a real war with the goal of victory?"

Giuliani, praised for his leadership in New York City after the September 11, 2001, attacks, told the crowd in Colorado that Kerry "can't seem to make up his mind whether terrorism is serious or a nuisance".

- INDEPENDENT, REUTERS