Raspy Clinton gives full-throated backing to Obama

CONCORD, New Hampshire (AFP) - In a raspy whisper, Bill Clinton said words many Democrats never thought they would hear, telling a huge Barack Obama crowd: "I have given my voice in the service of my president."

So Mr Clinton has - literally, with his exhaustive campaigning for a candidate he once disdained, and figuratively, by laying out a plain-spoken case for the current commander-in-chief, which Mr Obama has sometimes struggled to match.

The ex-president, his white mane picked out by spotlights, was the warm-up act for Mr Obama at a rally in swing state Virginia late Saturday that was packed despite frigid temperatures, just three days before America votes.

An hour later, as Mr Clinton's theme song Don't Stop by Fleetwood Mac blasted into the night air, the business of placing his two-term Democratic legacy on Mr Obama's shoulders was complete.