Making his first public appearance since heart surgery in September, former US president Bill Clinton campaigned with Senator John Kerry at a rally attended by tens of thousands in Philadelphia yesterday, writes Conor O'Clery in Philadelphia.
"From time to time they called me the comeback kid but in eight days John Kerry is going to make America the comeback country," said Mr Clinton, who received a tumultuous welcome from the crowd.
The former president, who looked pale and thin, will continue campaigning for Mr Kerry in Florida today. Later in the week he is expected to visit Nevada and New Mexico before travelling to his home state of Arkansas on Sunday, the Kerry campaign said.
Both Pennsylvania and Florida are among the most keenly fought battleground states in the election. Mr Kerry is slightly ahead in Pennsylvania and in a dead heat with President George Bush in Florida.
His strategic deployment in Philadelphia, a must-win state for the Democrats, was aimed at re-igniting the enthusiasm, especially among black voters that he inspired as president, and to get Democrats to turn out in sufficient numbers on polling day to defeat the Bush-Cheney campaign.
Speaking without a script, Mr Clinton peppered his speech with statistics. He reminded them that under Mr Bush America had lost jobs for the first time in 70 years.
Pennsylvania had lost 70,000 jobs, compared to the 219,000 gained "when that last fella' was in office". Since Mr Bush took office, 330,000 Pennsylvanians had lost their health care and 249,000 had been added to the poverty rolls.
Meanwhile, Mr Bush, with for- mer New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani at his side, criticised Mr 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. The choice is not only between two candidates - it is between two directions in the conduct of the war on terror.
"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?"
Mr Giuliani, widely praised for his leadership in New York after the September 11th attacks, told the crowd that Mr Kerry "can't seem to make up his mind whether terrorism is serious or a nuisance".
Additional reporting - Reuters