Clinton to back Obama, slam Republican \'mess\'

The only Democratic president to win two terms since World War II was set to turn back the years at the party\'s nominating convention, with the tricky task of arguing the case for a second Obama term in the face of a dismal economy.

Clinton, in the speech set for just after 10 pm (0200 GMT), planned to dismantle Mitt Romney\'s rationale for a return to power by Republicans, just four years after George W. Bush\'s presidency ended in a financial meltdown.

"The Republican argument against the President\'s re-election was pretty simple: We left him a total mess, he hasn\'t finished cleaning it up yet, so fire him and put us back in," Clinton said in excerpts of his remarks.

"I like the argument for President Obama\'s re-election a lot better," Clinton said, adding that Obama put a "deeply damaged economy" on the road to recovery and laid the foundation for millions of good new jobs.

"The most important question is, what kind of country do you want to live in?" Clinton was to ask Americans.

"If you want a you\'re-on-your-own, winner-take-all society, you should support the Republican ticket.

"If you want a country of shared prosperity and shared responsibility -- a we\'re-all-in-this-together society -- you should vote for Barack Obama and (Vice President) Joe Biden."

Clinton, as popular now as when he was inaugurated in 1993 -- he hit 66 percent approval in a recent CNN poll -- retains a hold over American voters, and will put aside a prickly past relationship with Obama to address the convention.

Obama arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier Wednesday on the eve of his big convention speech in which he will hope to break open an election that is too close to call and hinges on a handful of battleground states.

But an event that started in Democratic euphoria on Tuesday with a powerful speech from First Lady Michelle Obama was hit by several snafus as Obama flew into town.

First, the campaign cancelled plans for the president to give his nomination speech Thursday in a vast outdoor American football stadium, in which they had hoped to recreate the celebratory atmosphere of his 2008 convention address.

Officials said they could not risk thunder and lightning disrupting the event, Obama\'s best unfiltered chance to take his case to voters before the November 6 election, and moved the big set piece inside.

Then in an embarrassing reversal, party chieftains reinserted references to God and the status of Jerusalem back into the Democratic platform despite strong opposition from members.

The party had faced a tidal wave of criticism from Republicans and some within the party after dropping pro-forma references to God and the party\'s support for the Holy City being recognized as the capital of Israel.

Republicans, who accuse Obama of being too hard on Israel, had hoped to capitalize on the row to harm Obama with Jewish voters, who normally vote Democratic and could be crucial in the biggest swing state, Florida.

Clinton\'s economic pitch could be a hard sell to many Americans still feeling the effects of the "Great Recession," but Democrats said he was just the man to appeal to white, working-class men in swing states.

"He\'s able to reach out with his charisma to people who will not listen to President Barack Obama if for no other reason than his color," Jonice Crawford Butler, a Democratic volunteer in her 60s from Michigan, told AFP.

National polls put the rivals neck-and-neck, but a closer inspection of swing states reveals that Romney has his work cut out, especially as the bounce he was hoping for from last week\'s Republican convention has failed to materialize.

Republican attack dog John Sununu, a former New Hampshire governor, said Clinton\'s "blast from the past" appearance may well "induce nostalgia for the days of balanced budgets and bipartisan accomplishments."

"In ushering in new levels of fiscal recklessness, President Obama doesn\'t simply depart from the Clinton legacy -- he shatters it with a sledgehammer and runs over it with a steamroller," he said, in the Manchester Union Leader.

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