IT WAS a long time coming but just before midnight on a cold, clear Florida night, 35,000 people saw Bill Clinton embrace Barack Obama as his choice to be the next president of the United States.
The former president endorsed Mr Obama at the Democratic convention in August and he has campaigned for the Illinois senator in recent weeks, but this was their first appearance together.
"Barack Obama represents America's future, and you've got to be there for him next Tuesday,"
Mr Clinton told the massive, outdoor rally in Kissimmee, outside Orlando.
Throughout the Democratic primaries, the former president was openly resentful of the young pretender who snatched the party's nomination from his wife, Hillary Clinton. Mr Clinton believed the Obama campaign unfairly portrayed him as a racist, and until now, his support for Mr Obama has been muted.
At Kissimmee, however, Mr Clinton left nobody in any doubt about the choice facing voters next week. He said Mr Obama had the right philosophy and the best policies, adding that the Democratic nominee had shown that he was good at making decisions and executing them.
"The presidential campaign is the greatest job interview in the world. And on Tuesday, you get to make the hire," Mr Clinton said.
"This is not a close question. If you make the decision based on who can best get us out of the ditch . . . I think it's clear the next president should be, and with your help will be, Senator Barack Obama."
Although Mr Clinton's brooding anger received more attention during the primaries, Mr Obama had been graceless and ungenerous about the former president too, sometimes lumping the Clinton era in with the Bush years as a time of "failed politics". As they took the stage together in Florida, however, Mr Obama was unstinting in his praise for the 42nd president, characterising his time in office as an age of wisdom and plenty.
"In case all of you forgot, this is what it's like to have a great president. When Bill Clinton was president, your average wages and incomes went up $7,500. Under George Bush, it went down $2,000," Mr Obama said.
"So if I've got economic theories that are similar to Bill Clinton's, and [John McCain] has got economic theories that are similar to George Bush's, you can look and see which one worked and which didn't."
Mr Obama has sent his best team of political operatives to Florida in the hope of delivering a knock-out punch on Tuesday. Without Florida, Mr McCain has almost no hope of winning, and the candidates are running neck and neck in the state.
"From the polls, at this point it could go either way. We're certainly hoping that it will go in our direction with Obama," said Susan Michel, who works at a Lakeland firm.
"I'm really hoping that he'll be able to unite our country. There's really been so much division in our country over the last two administrations and I think ultimately for this country to move in a positive direction and to be the example to the world that we have been in the past is going to require all of our people to come together as one."
