Bill Clinton, Big Dog On The Campaign Trail, Gives Lift To Obama

Former President Bill Clinton was in campaign mode at a Sunday fund-raiser with President Barack Obama to make the case for his re-election and double-team his likely Republican rival Mitt Romney.

While praising Obama for beating the clock on the economy, Clinton -- a prized commodity for Democrats on the campaign trail -- rebuked Romney, the president's likely Republican rival, for wanting to go back to policies that led to the 2008 economic collapse.

I mean, this is crazy -- he's got an opponent who basically wants to do what they did before, on steroids, which will get you the same consequences you got before -- on steroids, Clinton said of Romney, according to a White House transcript of the campaign event.

Once heated rivals in the 2008 Democratic primary that pitted Hillary Clinton, now U.S. Secretary of State, against Obama, the former president has been a top surrogate for Obama's re-election campaign. He recently appeared in an ad touting the president's decision to authorize the risky mission that led to Osama bin Laden's death.

Bill Clinton: GOP Wants To Return To Policies Of Bush

At the Virginia home of Terry McAuliffe, a former head of the Democratic National Committee, Clinton criticized Republicans for going back to the policies of the Bush administration as the Obama campaign rolls out its new Forward message this week. Clinton also defended how Obama has handled the U.S. economy, which Romney has said is hamstrung by the president's policies.

If you go back 500 years, whenever a country's financial system collapses, it takes between 5 and 10 years to get back to full employment, Clinton said. He's beating the clock, not behind it. Don't listen to those Republicans. We are beating the clock.

Obama, who spent his time criticizing Republicans in Congress, poked fun at Romney for saying that Russia was the U.S.'s top geopolitical foe.

You've got the leading contender, the presumptive nominee, on the other side suddenly saying our number one enemy isn't al Qaeda, it's Russia, Obama said. I didn't know we were back in 1975, referring to the height of the Cold War.

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