Bill Clinton: In The Zone

Maybe it was that Darrell Hammond spoof on Saturday night that did it. The LA Times' Faye Fiore reports from Orlando:

Jeffrey Platt wasn't sure what he was going to hear when he took the afternoon off from his struggling architectural firm to see Bill Clinton make his first campaign stop for Barack Obama.

Since vowing at the Democrats' national convention to do all he could to elect the Illinois senator, the former president has been a study in mixed signals and bridled enthusiasm -- like the hostage who hails his captors while blinking in code: "Not really."

But under a blazing sun at the University of Central Florida on Wednesday, Platt, 52, said he heard what he was hoping for, a full-throated Clinton endorsement of Obama.

"Here's why you ought to be for Barack Obama," Clinton said with a passion some felt had gone missing. "He's got better answers -- better answers for the economy, for energy, for healthcare, for education. He knows what it will take to get this country back on track."

Platt left satisfied. "He finally got aggressive," he said after Clinton's speech in this battleground state where the race for 27 electoral votes is tight. "He made it apparent the country is in trouble and Barack Obama is the help we need."

UPDATE: Commenter Paul-NNTO offers a link, so you can watch it yourself. Bill Clinton's wife smartly used her husband in smaller cities and rural areas, where he really made a difference in her turnout. In fact, Obama campaign folks tell me they think they reason they lost the popular vote in Texas was that the Former President was below their radar, scouring up votes in the eastern and western parts of the state. Obama could do worse than to utilize Bill Clinton the same way.