ORLANDO, Fla. - On a rare day when both parties were focused on foreign affairs after the explosion of anti-American tumult in North Africa, former President Bill Clinton stuck to domestic issues of the economy and middle-class struggles on Wednesday as he continued his roadshow to re-elect President Obama.
“I plead with you,†Mr. Clinton told an estimated 2,000 people who packed a hotel ballroom in this presidential battleground state, “get out there and talk to people â€" for shared prosperity over trickle down, for ‘we're all in this together' over ‘you're on your own,' for cooperation over conflict and for arithmetic over illusion.â€
As applause and cheers built, Mr. Clinton added , “You need to re-elect President Barack Obama to do the job.â€
Hundreds of people were in line more than four hours before Mr. Clinton took the stage in the early evening, and ultimately Obama campaign aides got the hotel to open the room's wall dividers to create more space.
While several attendees said they had come to see a repeat of Mr. Clinton's entertaining performance last week at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., he gave a more meandering pep talk that was heavier with talk of his own philosophy and record as president and now as head of his own global foundation than it was with testimonials for Mr. Obama
And to the surprise of some reporters following Mr. Clinton's postconvention stumping, he said nothing about the violence in Egypt and Libya, on the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, that killed the American ambassador and three other diplomats in Libya. The viole nce provoked a crisis for the Obama administration, including Mr. Clinton's wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and roiled the presidential contest as Mitt Romney quickly attacked the administration for its reaction and was criticized in turn for recklessly playing politics, including by some Republicans.
Instead, much as he had on Tuesday in Miami before 2,300 people, Mr. Clinton defended and promoted Mr. Obama's health care law, his initiatives to make college more affordable and his response to the economic crisis that Mr. Obama inherited in 2009 despite what Mr. Clinton characterized as constant obstructions from Republicans.
“Richard Nixon's too liberal for these people,†Mr. Clinton said to laughter and applause.
For those who had not heard his Charlotte address, Mr. Clinton said he wanted to repeat one message about the recession and continuing economic problems “because the whole election could come down to this.â€
“It is my opinion,†he said, “that no president, not Barack Obama, not Bill Clinton, not anybody who served before us, nobody who ever had this job could have repaired that much damage to this economy in just three years.â€
And citing the importance of Medicare to the many retirees in Florida, Mr. Clinton also took issue with Republicans' claims that Mr. Obama had cut benefits to people in the private Medicare Advantage program to pay for the health care law.
A record number of insurance companies and beneficiaries are now participating in the program and the cost of premiums is down, Mr. Clinton said. “So if the president was trying to wreck Medicare Advantage, he did a poor job of it because it's in the best shape it's ever been in.â€
He assailed Mr. Romney's proposal for $5 trillion in additional income-tax cuts over the coming decade, saying, “I was always taught that when you're in a hole, the first rule is to quit digging.â€
To offset th e cost of their tax cuts, Mr. Clinton said Republicans would cut tax breaks benefiting the middle class and spending for education and Medicaid. “Or they can do what they used to do,†he said, which is to cut taxes “and then forget about cutting spending and let the debt balloon.â€
The Obama campaign is still working with Mr. Clinton to schedule additional campaign appearances and at least one more fund-raiser. One campaign official said the former president could be sent anywhere and appeal to both Democrats and independents. The campaign has also spent heavily to run an advertisement featuring Mr. Clinton in a number of battleground states.
