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ADAM C. SMITH and TAMARA LUSHBill Clinton draws adoring crowds in Philadelphia and Miami as he pumps up Sen. John Kerry.
PHILADELPHIA - Love him or hate him, Bill Clinton always manages to work a little dramatic magic.
Just seven weeks after serious heart surgery, the two-term former president hit the campaign trail for John Kerry Monday. Beaming, biting his lip and calmly chastising the policies of President Bush, Clinton basked in the roaring cheers of crowds in Philadelphia before heading to Miami to campaign Monday evening.
"If this isn't good for my heart," a thin and pale Clinton said in Philadelphia, "I don't know what is."
Tens of thousands of people closed downtown streets, crowded outdoor cafes and crammed 10 to 15 deep on the sidewalks just to glimpse the distant stage in Love Park. They peered out of office windows and stood blocks away listening to the Clinton/Kerry joint rally.
"From time to time I have been called the comeback kid," Clinton said. "In eight days John Kerry is going to make America the comeback country."
The impeached former president is loathed by conservatives and adored by the Democratic base, especially African-Americans, in a way Kerry is not. Before Clinton headed to Florida and Kerry headed to Michigan with rocker Jon Bon Jovi Monday, they spoke with African-American ministers across the country in a conference call.
"They had to roll Clinton out of the operating room and onto the campaign trail in order to basically help Kerry with the weaknesses that he has among core Democrat constituencies," said Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser. "This is not an appeal to swing voters. This is an appeal to the hard core base of the Democratic party, which is unenthusiastic about Sen. Kerry."
Kerry-Edwards campaign officials say they have no worries about Clinton turning off swing voters. They say he can remind undecided moderates about the prosperity and peace the country enjoyed before President Bush.
Onstage together in Philadelphia, Kerry praised Clinton as the last president to fight for the middle class and strengthen the economy. Kerry has periodically sought advice from Clinton and recalled talking to him before and while he was hospitalized for quadruple bypass surgery.
"You could feel it in him. He couldn't stand the idea of not being out here on the trail with all of us," Kerry told the Philadelphia crowd. "And he said, "I'm going to do my darndest to get back there before the end of this campaign.' Promise made, promise kept. Thank you Mr. President."
Clinton is scheduled to campaign in West Palm Beach today and later in the week heads to the western battleground states of Nevada and New Mexico. He will hit his home state of Arkansas.
"He thinks there's a real opportunity in Arkansas," said Mike McCurry, a Kerry-Edwards aide who used to work for Clinton.
Clinton could have skipped the campaign trail because of health reasons, and by some accounts it would be in his interest. After all, his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, is widely viewed as a future presidential candidate. If Kerry wins this election, she would have to wait at least until 2012 to run, and then could face a sitting vice president, John Edwards.
But there were no signs of reluctance from the former president as he touted Kerry as the optimistic candidate whose agenda makes more sense for the vast majority of Americans. He criticized Bush for driving up the federal deficit by insisted on tax cuts for "upper-income people like me" with no plan for paying for it.
"We don't want our children and our grandchildren paying for the costs of our tax cuts," said Clinton, who left office with a budget surplus.
In Miami Monday evening, Clinton bounded on stage during a rally in a downtown park lined with palm trees. With a big, open-mouthed smile, he basked in the love of the raucous audience.
He spent most of his speech contrasting the differences between the policies of Bush and Kerry, saying that millionaires like himself have gotten the all the breaks during the past four years. Working people have a reason to vote for Kerry, said Clinton.
"You're almost always better off voting for the guy who wants you to think and hope," Clinton said. "Not for the guy who wants you not to think and to be scared."
The crowd of several thousand was typical Miami: Haitian-Americans stood next to Asian-Americans, while African-Americans cheered next to Cubans.
"Bush is using the feelings of Cubans and dividing Cuban families," said Pedro Fernandez, 62. He was referring to Bush's new travel restrictions to the island for Cuban families, an attempt to hurt President Fidel Castro. "Bush is doing the same thing as Fidel Castro. ... Bush's policy is a disaster in every sense."
Rose and Marc Jean, originally from Haiti, voted early for Kerry. They dislike the way Bush handled the political crisis in their country this year, and blame him for the ouster of former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the resulting violence.
"We want peace," said Rose Jean, a 41-year-old mother of two.
Joe Casillas, 49, a Miami truck driver, blamed Bush for his rising health care costs and for misleading Americans on the war in Iraq.
Casillas pointed to Clinton and said, "When he lied, no one died."
Like many in the crowd, 54-year-old Claretha Stewart wished Clinton was still in office.
"That's my black brother," she said, snapping a photo of Clinton with a disposable camera.
Bush, she said, "doesn't even recognize me as a black woman."
-- Times staff writers Bill Adair and Brady Dennis contributed to this report. Adam C. Smith can be reached at 727893-8241 or adam@sptimes.com