Bill Clinton Tries to Offset Obama's Good Poll Numbers

Seeing Barack Obama take the lead in the national tracking polls and thus make his wife's chances in 2012 a little more dim, Bill Clinton tried to stop the bounce by jumping in and praising John McCain and Sarah Palin in an interview:

ABC News' Jennifer Parker reports: Former President Bill Clinton has largely kept himself out of the public eye since his wife lost the Democratic primary to Barack Obama.

However in a rare television interview tonight the former president called Republican presidential candidate John McCain "a great man" and praised GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin as an "instinctively effective candidate."

On a day when Obama sought to convince voters that he's best able to handle the economic crisis, the former president said it was his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY, who gave today "the most detailed position."

In an interview with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo, Clinton, who has tried to put to rest rumors of tensions between himself and Obama said, "I've never concealed my admiration and affection for Senator McCain. I think he's a great man.

"But, I think on the issues that matter to our future, the Obama-Biden team is, is more right," Clinton said of the Democratic ticket. "And I believe they're gonna win. But, I think that it will be competitive until the end."

A ringing endorsement it wasn't.

Bill Clinton is the GOP's secret weapon in 2008.