As he prepared for heart bypass surgery early next week, former US president Bill Clinton was in good spirits today, dressed in street clothes and walking around his hospital room, according to people close to the Clinton family.
The former president said he was "a little scared, but not much" of the surgery, but was looking forward to a swift recovery and resuming normal activities including jogging.
He was hospitalised yesterday with chest pains and shortness of breath.
"Let me just say this, Republicans aren't the only people who want four more years here," Clinton said in a live interview yesterday evening on CNN's
Larry King Live.
An angiogram showed that Mr Clinton, who turned 58 two weeks ago, had significant blockage in his heart arteries, but did not suffer a heart attack, said a doctor who performed the test.
Clinton blamed the blockage in part on genetics, but also said he "may have
done some damage in those years when I was too careless about what I ate."
His wife Hillary, said the former president would have surgery early next week and no further information about his condition would be released until the operation was finished.
"I wanted to report to you that my husband is doing very well," she said outside New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia, where the former president is being treated. "He's in great humour. He's beating all of us at cards and the rest of the games we're playing."