Clinton lends stump skills to Kerry

PHILADELPHIA – Former President Clinton joined Democratic Sen. John Kerry at a noontime rally in Philadelphia that drew tens of thousands. “If this isn’t good for my heart, I don’t know what is,” Clinton said, looking thinner seven weeks after bypass surgery.

While Kerry lashed out at President Bush on Monday over Iraq policies, the Republican incumbent gave as good as he got. “On Iraq, my opponent has a strategy of pessimism and retreat,” he said in Greeley, Colo.

Bush accused Kerry of “throwing out the wild claim that he knows where Osama bin Laden was in the fall of 2001 – and that our military had a chance to get him in Tora Bora.”

That was a reference to Kerry’s frequent assertion that the administration “outsourced” the job of hunting down bin Laden to Afghan warlords.

“This is an unjustified and harsh criticism of our military commanders in the field,” Bush said.

Beyond Iraq, Bush cited Kerry’s opposition to the Persian Gulf War, his proposal for cuts in the intelligence budget in 1994 and his position on former President Reagan’s defense buildup in the 1980s.

Together, they show that “on the largest national security issues of our time, he has been consistently and dangerously wrong.”

Bush went from his ranch in Texas to Colorado, Iowa and Wisconsin as he sought the 270 electoral votes needed for a second term.

Kerry campaigned from New Hampshire to Wisconsin during the day by way of Pennsylvania and Michigan. Aides mapped a plan for a 72-hour marathon leading to Election Day.

Clinton was in vintage form, putting forth a lip-biting, thumb-wagging, center-of-attention performance.

“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.

Kerry hopes that Clinton can help turn out Democratic voters, especially blacks who are lukewarm about their nominee.

“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.

“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.

Latest polls

* Results of an ABC News poll conducted Thursday through Sunday of 1,631 likely voters:

Kerry-Edwards: 49 percent (up from 48 percent in the previous poll)

Bush-Cheney: 48 percent (down from 49 percent)

Nader-Camejo: 1 percent (unchanged)

Unsure: 3 percent (unchanged)

The margin of error is plus or minus 2.5 percent.

* Results of a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll conducted Friday through Sunday of 1,195 likely voters:

Bush-Cheney: 51 percent (down from 52 percent in the previous poll)

Kerry-Edwards: 46 percent (up from 44 percent)

Nader-Camejo: 1 percent (unchanged)

Unsure: 4 percent (up from 3 percent)