Bill Clinton backs Obama at midnight rally in coveted Florida
Former president ditches acrimony of wife's primary defeat to give strongest backing yet to Democratic candidate
Less than a year ago, they were slinging mud at one another, the mutual animosity open for all to see. Early today, the 42nd president of the US and the man who is on course to be elected the 44nd shook hands and hugged.
Bill Clinton and Barack Obama joined forces at a midnight (4am GMT) rally in Florida - their first time together on the campaign trail.
Clinton was even more lavish in praise of the presidential candidate than he was at the Democratic convention in August. "We have so much promise and so much peril. This man should be our president," Clinton said.
Obama, departing from his usual stump speech, was equally warm in return, contrasting Clinton's record in office with that of George Bush and hailing his economic stewardship. Clinton appeared touched, almost choking with emotion, as he sat listening.
Deep down they may still not like one another but the two gave a good impression of now being best mates.
Two of the most gifted political speakers of the last 50 years, they both demonstrated at the rally how they had earned that reputation. Clinton had a looser, more conversational style, while Obama sounded more lofty - but both were effective.
Having secured the dominant image of Tuesday's campaigning by delivering his speech in Pennsylvania in the driving rain, Obama sought to secure another in Florida by holding his rally at midnight. He wanted to convey the message that he was working all out for victory, but he also demonstrated again his pulling power by getting an estimated 35,000 to turn out for a campaign event late at night. He could not see how many were present because they stretched so far back, out of reach of the lights, standing in the dark.
The Orlando-Tampa corridor is the key to Florida and victory in the state - which went Republican in the last two elections - would deliver the White House to Obama. The crowd gathered in Kissimmee, about half-an-hour's drive south of Orlando, was one of the most diverse the campaign has yet delivered: blacks, Latinos, whites, the young and the elderly - some pushing their walking frames across the grass - mothers with babies in spite of the late hour, working class and upper middle-class.
Members of the crowd said afterwards they had been lifted by the sight of a united Democratic front and brushed off the earlier antagonism between the two men during the prolonged battle for the party's presidential nomination. They dismissed it as just politics, with Clinton punching hard on behalf of his wife.
Apparently having put antagonisms and greivances behind them, the two arrived at the podium just after 11.15pm last night, their arms draped around each other's shoulders.
Clinton, hoarse from campaigning in Florida earlier in the day, said he had been impressed by how Obama, during the financial crisis, had listened to advice from a variety of experts - a necessary presidential trait.
He contrasted Obama's reaction to the financial meltdown last month with his rival John McCain's. Obama sought a wide range of advice, Clinton said, because he knew it was complicated, and before he said anything he wanted to understand.
"Folks, if we have not learned anything, we have learned that we need a president who wants to understand - and who can understand," he said, succeeding at the same time in praising Obama while taking a dig at President Bush.
Obama thanked Clinton for his help and extended it to Hillary, his former rival, and described both as friends.
The two were introduced by the actor Jimmy Smits, who played a successful ethnic minority candidate, a Latino, in the US TV show The West Wing. Smits' character, the Democratic Texas congressman Matthew Santos, upset the odds by beating an older, Republican senator to the White House. Obama thanked Smits from the podium, describing him as the "the most recent Democratic president".
