ONROE, Mich. - In one dramatic moment, as he strolled offstage under a flurry of confetti, an emotional President Clinton symbolically passed the presidential mantle yesterday to Al Gore, who tomorrow will accept the Democratic Party's nomination.
Then, Clinton and his family went to a McDonald's, where the president ordered a crispy-chicken sandwich meal. His daughter, Chelsea, said she hadn't been to a McDonald's in eight years.
The campaign appearance ended a chapter on a partnership introduced to America at the Democratic National Convention in 1992, when two baby-boomer couples bounded onto the stage to claim the nomination.
''Are you ready to win this election for Al Gore and Joe Lieberman?'' a beaming Clinton asked a crowd of more than 10,000 cheering fans. Gore, ''my partner and friend for the past eight years, understands where we are, where we're going, and how it will affect ordinary citizens more than any other public figure in the country over the last 20 years,'' Clinton said.
''He is the right person to be the first president of the 21st century,'' the president added.
Clinton received a returning hero's welcome in this industrial state, where unemployment has plummeted to 2.2 percent from 8.8 percent in 1992.
Dressed in a suit, Clinton watched with apparent pride as Gore, looking ready-to-work in shirtsleeves, thanked Clinton for ''giving me the chance to serve my country during these years of prosperity and progress by working to help strengthen your hand.''
Clinton took what has often been Gore's role onstage, standing behind his vice president as Gore praised his close friend. As he listened, Clinton wrapped an arm around his wife, Hillary, and Tipper Gore.
''America's done well, but I tell you, you ain't seen nothin' yet!'' the vice president said. ''We will go forward to even better times.''
Clinton kept his speech short, waxing nostalgic only briefly before lavishing praise on Gore. He reminisced about the bus trip they took after the convention in 1992, saying that helping working-class towns like Monroe rebound from the sluggish economy was the reason they ran. ''The people who live here are the kind of people we ran to change the future for,'' Clinton said.
The Gore campaign chose this quaint setting for the handoff because Clinton and Gore had campaigned in a nearby town in 1992, a time when Monroe's economy had been hard hit.
''Every good thing that has come out of our administration in the last eight years, Al Gore was at the heart of,'' Clinton said before clasping hands with his wife and daughter and exiting the stage.
''Why are they letting Clinton go and leaving Al Gore up there?'' complained a young girl, straining to get a picture with her disposable camera.
Gore and his opponent, George W. Bush, are in a dead heat in Michigan, a delegate-rich state won by the Clinton-Gore ticket in 1992 and in 1996.
While Clinton's popularity is high in Michigan, ''the electorate hasn't really warmed up to Al Gore yet,'' said Michael Traugott, a political science and communications professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Since Republicans hold most statewide-elected offices here, Traugott said, Gore needs help from such oganizations as the United Auto Workers, which endorsed Gore on Friday. The support of the auto workers union is crucial and will probably boost Gore's numbers when the members start working for him, Traugott predicted.
''Someone who has to follow Clinton - it's an especially hard job,'' said Carole Van Brandt, 55, an enthusiastic Gore supporter at yesterday's rally.
But others in the crowd said Gore would strengthen his following as the campaign progresses. ''I truly believe that once people get in the voting booth and have to choose between the son of a president we threw out of office and someone's who's been working there eight years, I have no doubt Al Gore will get elected,'' said Carl Pate, 35.
Clinton and Gore appeared together a day after both Clintons spoke on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. The president's 40-minute farewell speech was viewed as an opportunity to transfer some of his magnetism and appeal to Gore and allow the vice president to come into the convention and claim it as his own.
Yesterday, aboard Air Force One, Clinton said Gore and Lieberman had phoned him after his speech and said they liked it.
''I hope it helped him,'' Clinton said. ''We'll see. ... But the main thing was I just wanted to thank the people and say what I believed. And, I got a chance to do it.''
Of his farewell speech, he said, ''I'll never forget this as long as I live.''
