Bill Clinton supports Obama "deserves to be reelected".

Former president Bill Clinton campaigned o Sunday with Barack Obama for the first time in the 2012 presidential race. The former president made an impassioned plea to reelect the incumbent and helped raise more than two million dollars in campaign contributions for November elections.

"Barack Obama deserves to be reelected," Clinton told about 500 Obama supporters in Virginia.

"I think he has done a good job (...) We are moving this country forward. We are going in the right direction under the leadership of President Obama, " Mr. Clinton said.

OBAMA SMILE

For his part, Obama called the Clinton administration's economic record "remarkable"it "remarkable."

"I'm not running for president just to get back where we were in 2007. I'm not running for the presidency merely to restore the status quo before the financial crisis. I compete for the presidency because we lost our way since Bill Clinton left the presidency," Obama said.

Obama seeks to leverage the popularity of the former Democratic president to raise funds and communicate his economic message to voters who might be receptive to Republican criticism, epecially at a time when U.S. unemployment remains relatively high and growth appears to be slowing .

Tickets for the reception, which took place outdoors, started at one thousand dollars. The president and Clinton later went to an even more exclusive dinner for 80 people, who paid $ 20,000 each . The money went primarily to fund Obama for reelection.