NEW YORK – Former President Bill Clinton was in good spirits Saturday, walking around his hospital room in street clothes and buoyed by thousands of get-well messages as he awaited heart bypass surgery early this week, people close to the family said.
Clinton was expected to undergo surgery as early as Monday, but probably Tuesday, said Democratic Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe, who said the former president was “upbeat” when he spoke to him by phone on Friday.
“I thanked him for getting the Democrats back on the front page, and he told me that’s about as far as he’s willing to go,” McAuliffe said Saturday. “I said I needed him out on the campaign trail as soon as possible, and he said as he soon as he recuperates he’ll be ready to go.”
Clinton was to undergo triple or quadruple bypass surgery, according to close friends.
Sen. Hillary Clinton and daughter Chelsea visited the former president in the hospital on Saturday, and he had received 15,000 get-well messages relayed from the Web site of his foundation, www.clintonpresidential center.org, a spokeswoman said.
Clinton was admitted to New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia on Friday after suffering chest pains and shortness of breath.
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