Bill Clinton is the star at a Joe Sestak rally

SCRANTON - Former President Bill Clinton's signature campaign song was always "Don't Stop" (thinkin' about tomorrow) by Fleetwood Mac, and, on cue, the anthem blasted off the walls of the Scranton High School gym Tuesday as he campaigned for Democratic Senate nominee Joe Sestak.

But mostly Clinton wanted to talk about yesterday - the budget surplus and 20 million jobs created under his administration. It makes no sense to elect Republicans whose policies created the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression because the Democrats have not fixed it yet, Clinton argued.

"We were in a deep hole. A year and a half wasn't enough to dig us out of it," Clinton said.

"If you vote for these people who are running against guys like Joe Sestak, they're going to go up there and take the oath of office - they'll have one hand on the Bible, and they got a shovel in the other hand. They want to start digging again."

Sestak, a second-term U.S. representative from Delaware County, missed his own campaign rally because he was in Washington for an emergency House session for a final vote on $26 billion in federal aid for states and school districts slammed by the recession.

A former Navy vice admiral, Sestak was director of defense policy in the Clinton White House.

Clinton praised Sestak as an analytical "problem-solver" and credited the then-Navy officer with teaching a former governor "a lot in a short amount of time" about national security.

The former president's endorsement of Sestak was in contrast to a mission he undertook last year, as an intermediary for the Obama administration, to discourage Sestak from challenging Sen. Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary.

Then, Clinton held out to Sestak the prospect of an advisory position on national security. Sestak declined the offer and went on to beat Specter.

After the rally and an earlier fund-raiser, Clinton traveled to Allentown to raise cash for Bethlehem Mayor Joe Callahan, the Democratic candidate for the House in the 15th District, and was to visit a fund-raiser in Philadelphia for the party's gubernatorial nominee, Dan Onorato.

The former president's political schedule has been full these days, with polls showing his approval rating higher than President Obama's and Democratic candidates skittish about appearing with the current president, especially in swing states such as Pennsylvania and Missouri.