Former President Bill Clinton salutes the crowd Monday, Oct. 25, 2004 after speaking at an Early Vote rally in Miami. (AP)

It was vintage Bill Clinton, a lip-biting, thumb-wagging,
center-of-attention performance. Seven weeks after quadruple bypass
heart surgery, looking pale and unusually thin, the former president
came back to give John Kerry a sendoff(送行) for the final week
of the campaign — promoting his own presidency as well — and bluntly
framed the campaign between Kerry and President 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.

"Who did I come to see?" asked Lisa Jackson, 44, of Upper
Darby, Pa, 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."

Kerry hopes that Clinton can help turn out Democratic voters,
especially blacks like Jackson who are lukewarm about their nominee.
After the rally, Kerry and Clinton held a conference call with black
ministers across the country and had lunch with state politicians and
"as many other hanger-oners who could fit in the room," said
Kerry spokesman Mike McCurry.

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
GOP-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 a higher approval ratings than Bush or Kerry in some
polls.

Robert Maris, 40, of Philadelphia peered through binoculars at the
stage two blocks away. "I came here to see my man," he said.
"Bill Clinton. I hope he brings his best stuff."

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.

Clinton gave himself the comeback moniker 12 years ago, putting a
good face on his second-place finish in New Hampshire's Democratic
primary.

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. There are 249,000 new cases of poverty in Pennsylvania.
Some 333,000 people who lost health insurance. Unemployment is up 26
percent. About 140,000 unemployed workers were kicked off job training
and 88,000 cops have been pulled off the streets.