PHILADELPHIA, United States (AFP) - Former president Bill Clinton brought his political star power to shine on his Democratic party's candidate John Kerry, as President George W. Bush was forced on the defensive over the disappearance of powerful explosives in Iraq.
Clinton, who is recovering from major heart surgery, campaigned with Kerry in Philadelphia as the Massachusetts senator demanded that Bush answer for the hundreds of tons of missing explosives in Iraq.
Bush, meanwhile, was in the western state of Colorado, kicking off the final week of campaigning before the November 2 election with a new broadside against what he called Kerry's "strategy of pessimism and retreat" on Iraq.
Polls showed the race a virtual dead heat with Bush maintaining a statistically insignificant lead on a national level. The battle for decisive electoral votes awarded on the state level was still too close to call.
Looking thinner but smiling broadly, Clinton, 58, made his first appearance since undergoing quadruple bypass heart surgery seven weeks ago to add star power to the sometimes monotone Kerry campaign.
"From time to time I have been called the comeback kid," the politically savvy former president told a rally of cheering supporters. "In eight days John Kerry is going to make America the comeback country."
The Democrats hope to use Clinton's enormous popularity among minorities and other constituencies, as well as his eight-year record of economic prosperity and fiscal prudence, to solidify Kerry's base and reach out to swing voters.
Clinton ticked off a litany of alleged Bush administration failings on jobs, taxes, health care and foreign policy, and sought draw to draw a sharp contrast between Kerry and the Republicans.
"Our friends on the other side want a world where they concentrate wealth and power on the far right, do what they want to when they can and cooperate with others only when they have to," he said.
Clinton, who was to fly later Monday to Florida for a get-out-the-vote rally, told ABC television he was throwing himself into the campaign because it was so close.
"I think this is one of the most difficult elections to call I have ever seen," said Clinton.
White House communications director Dan Bartlett said Clinton's return revealed Kerry's weakness.
"The fact that John Kerry's going to have to roll him off the surgery table and onto the campaign trail demonstrates a revealing aspect, that he's underperforming in key parts of his own constituency," Bartlett told Fox television Sunday.
Kerry, meanwhile, seized upon a report by the UN nuclear watchdog that some 350 metric tonnes (380 tons) of explosives had disappeared from an unguarded military installation in Iraq to renew his criticism of what he called Bush's "incredible incompetence."
"The unbelievable blindness, stubbornness, arrogance of this administration to do the basics has now allowed this president to once again fail the test of being commander in chief."
He said the president had ignored warnings about the stockpiles of explosives in Iraq and cleared the way for terrorists who could use them to kill troops, blow up airplanes and level buildings.
The Bush campaign strongly rejected the Democratic attack.
"John Kerry has no vision for fighting and winning the war on terror, so he is basing his attacks on the headlines he wakes up to each day," said spokesman Scott Stanzel.
Bush heaped new scorn on Kerry's position on Iraq in a speech in the western state of Colorado, where he accused the Democrat of pursuing "a strategy of pessimism and retreat.
"He's talked about artificial timetables to pull our troops out. He has sent the signal that America's overriding goal in Iraq would be to leave, even if the job is not done. That sends the wrong message."
Bush also derided Kerry's remarks that the United States had gone into Iraq without world support. The president said such remarks were "deeply offensive" to allies such as Britain, Italy and Poland that had sent troops.
"You cannot expand an alliance by showing contempt for those already in it," Bush said. "They deserve the respect of all Americans, not the scorn of a politician.
10/25/2004 - 22:27 GMT - AFP