President Clinton campaigned for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in Roanoke on Sunday evening, exciting a crowd of thousands with his praise for Obama's commitment to policy change.
Click here for a photo gallery of the event.
At the outdoor rally at the City Market in downtown Roanoke, Clinton said that Obama had the instincts to be president, citing his plans for financial recovery and proposals for health care reform.
"Barack Obama and Joe Biden are going to win here on Election Day with your help," Clinton said. "For the first time in 40 years, Virginia will be a Democratic state. We have a chance to fundamentally change the direction of the country."
Clinton said that he has now witnessed two "presidential moments" by Obama, furthering his faith in the presidential nominee. The first being Obama's selection of Biden as his running mate; Clinton said that the economic crisis revealed the second.
"(Obama) called all of his advisers together ... and said, 'first, I want to understand what is happening before I say something,'" Clinton said. "He is smart as a whip, so he did understand. He said, 'Don't bother me with what's popular, I want to know what the right thing to do is and I'll figure out how to settle it.' That's what a president does in a crisis."
Clinton elaborated further on what makes a good president, outlining the character traits that are essential.
"They have to have the right ideas; they have to have good instincts; they have to have to want to know, and they have to be able to know and understand," Clinton said. "You need a good supporting cast. When you get in a mess like this and there's no precedent, it really matters."
Clinton also addressed the Republican Party as a whole, telling the crowd that President Bush's current response is actually helping Obama's campaign.
"The administration keeps plowing an Uzi's worth of bullets into the McCain-Palin ticket every time they have something else go wrong," Clinton said. "It's good politics for us."
Clinton added that Obama has more potential than he did in 1992 to make changes in the United States.
"When I was elected, people blamed my predecessor, but not the ideas on which their whole deal was founded," Clinton said. "The country turns to us Democrats when they get into a ditch and you don't have time to vote on all the hyperventilated issues. That's where America is today."
Clinton also touched on energy dependency, supporting Obama's plan for alternative resources. Clinton said that the proposals would not only lead to cleaner energy supplies, but that they would also create employment opportunities in the new industries, an issue that may have become more and more disconcerting to the American people.
"We had almost eight million people moving from poverty into the middle class when you gave me a chance to serve; now we've had 5 and a half million move from the middle class back into poverty, almost all of them while they were working full time," Clinton said.
Clinton added that Obama's health care plan, if implemented, would give at least 26 million Americans health insurance, an issue Clinton said has been dormant since his administration.
"We are spending money in the wrong way, instead of the right way, because no one has had the courage to try and fix this mess since Hillary (Clinton) and I," Clinton said. "We've done a decade where 90 percent of the gains went to 10 percent of the people."
Clinton interjected a story about Winston Churchill, the United Kingdom's Prime Minister during World War II, in his speech.
"In World War II, Winston Churchill believed in FDR, but he was out (in the war) all by himself for two years just waiting for something to happen for the United States to get in," Clinton said. "The British press would rag him and say, 'Where is your friend?' Churchill would then say, 'The United States always does the right thing, after exhausting all other alternatives.' Well we don't have any other alternatives."
Clinton said that change in America would not come overnight, and that the country would have to be patient while the recovery is in progress.
"We gotta elect 'em, we gotta support 'em, but then we've gotta have the patience to realize we've been driven into a very deep ditch and we're going to have to get ourselves out of it," Clinton said.
The visit to Roanoke was Clinton's first in support of Obama, having previously campaigned in the area during Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Before Clinton took to the microphone, resident Amy Richardson spoke, describing her past with presidential elections and the economy.
Richardson said that she had not exercised her right to vote in several prior elections, because she "didn't think it really mattered that much."
"I was wrong about elections; they matter -- a lot," Richardson said. "We cannot have another four years of the failed policy of the last eight."
Richardson also believed that Obama will manage America's middle class better.
"I make a little more (money) than in 2000, but it doesn't seem to go as far. Barack Obama and Bill Clinton both know that the health of America rests on the health of the middle class. Barack will invest in the American people, the same way President Clinton did," she said.
Though the rally was intended to support the candidacy of Obama, some of the attendees were former Clinton supporters directed to Obama, predominantly interested in hearing the ex-president speak.
Thomas Cobbs of Franklin County came to the rally to support Clinton and said he was inspired by the former president's speech.
"I had to shake hands with the president," Cobbs said. "I gotta shake hands with the president."
Sally Shultz, a Salem resident, echoed a similar sentiment.
"I came here to see Clinton," Shultz said. "I thought it was great. He is a real motivator. I love to hear him talk."