Clinton Rises From Sick Bed to Boost Kerry Campaign

Bill Clinton today made his first appearance on the campaign trail since his heart surgery seven weeks ago and urged voters to elect John Kerry as a president who "wants you to think and hope".

The former president told a boisterous rally in Philadelphia that Mr Kerry, the Democratic challenger, would be a champion of the middle classes who had been hit hard by the Republican administration of George Bush.

Mr Clinton, who has been warned by doctors not to exert himself too much after his surgery, looked well as he walked out onto the stage in the biggest city in Pennsylvania, which is one of the key swing states that will settle the November 2 poll.

His first words on stage were "If this is not good for my heart I don't know what is."

Mr Clinton said: "From time to time, I was called the comeback kid. Well in eight days, John Kerry is going to make America the comeback country."

He said that in four years of a Bush White House, 70,000 jobs had been lost in Philadelphia compared to a growth of 200,000 jobs when the "last fella was president: me".

He said unemployment across the state was up 26%, compared to being up 25% in the first four years of his Democratic administration and that 333,000 people in the state had lost their health insurance. He said that under the Republicans the public got less cover for more money.

He said that Mr Kerry's plans was to increase the numbers of police officers on the streets, to get the guns out of the communities. He would focus on the true threats facing America, and make fighting al-Qaida a priority. "We still have six times as many troops in Iraq as we do in Afghanistan," the former president said.

He described both Mr Kerry and Mr Bush as strong characters. But he said the Republicans did not want people to think and they wanted the public to be scared.

Mr Clinton said that the Republicans had given "two huge tax cuts to special interests and people with high incomes like me" that hit the middle classes. "John Kerry has a better plan," Mr Clinton said to huge applause.

He paid tribute to Mr Kerry for his perseverance, saying that during the tough moments in his campaign he had "just kept being John Kerry" and had come back in the polls.

Mr Kerry thanked Mr Clinton, who he said was loved by the American people. He said heart surgery was a "big deal" but that it was a tough job "to keep Bill Clinton away from the campaign trail".

He revealed that when he went to see Mr Clinton in hospital the former president had promised him he would be back before election day to help Mr Kerry, "Promise kept," Mr Kerry said.

Mr Kerry said he had asked Mr Clinton before they took the stage what he had in common with Mr Bush. Mr Kerry said that Mr Clinton had said: "In eight days ... we will both be former presidents".