The surrogate-in-chief, former President Bill Clinton, opened the North Carolina primary campaign for his wife Friday, saying Hillary Rodham Clinton is best prepared to guide the country through economic problems and foreign conflicts.

"It is important to pick someone you trust who can immediately handle the national security responsibility in the country as well as get this economy turned around and deal with the issues that are of direct and immediate importance to you," Clinton told an overflow crowd at the Cary Senior Center.

"I'd be for her even if we had never been married," he said.

Clinton made campaign stops in Charlotte and Cary before meeting privately with about 50 local supporters of Hillary Clinton's at the Raleigh home of former Ambassador Jeannette Hyde.

In Cary, he promised that his wife would wage a vigorous campaign against Sen. Barack Obama in North Carolina between now and the primary May 6. He said Sen. Clinton would be in North Carolina next week and would visit the state at least once a week for the next six weeks.

Clinton demonstrated why he is the only Democrat since Franklin Roosevelt to win two terms as president. He spoke for more than 40 minutes without notes, commingling wonky talk about reducing health-care paperwork with self-deprecating anecdotes about learning to enter a room without a band playing "Hail to the Chief."

The former president avoided wading into any of the political swamps that have gotten him into trouble in the past. He praised Obama rather than directly criticizing him.

Obama, who opened his campaign in North Carolina earlier this week, had been viewed by most prognosticators as the favorite to win the state, in part because African-American voters are expected to make up at least 30 percent of the primary electorate. But a new poll this week shows the race a dead heat.

"This whole thing could come down to what you all decide to do in North Carolina," Clinton said. "This is a state which is very much involved in all the promise and all the peril that's going on in the American economy. It is therefore appropriate you that you have a big role in America's future."

The Clinton campaign opened its North Carolina effort with a folksy Southern drawl. Bill Clinton is an Arkansan who is the last Democrat to make a major effort in this state in a general election, barely losing to the elder President Bush in 1992. (He lost by a significant margin to Republican Bob Dole in 1996.)

Three hundred fifty people crowded into the senior center, with an overflow of 200 listening outside over loudspeakers. After his speech, Clinton worked the crowd both in the hall and outside.

"I'd put him back in the presidency if I could," said Whit Joyner of New Hill, 66, a retired Environmental Protection Agency employee. "But she is going to be just as good."

Asked what he liked about Clinton, Joyner, replied: "Everything, except that he can't keep his hormones under control."

John Pleim, 51, an EPA worker, said he liked Clinton's emphasis on environmental issues.

"I got the sense that he is a good guy," Pleim said. "A lot of people would vote for him again."

The Clinton speech had three prongs: that times were better when the Clintons were in the White House; that things had gotten worse during Bush's seven years; and that Sen. Clinton had well-thought-out plans on such issues as health care and energy.

Pitching his wife to a more conservative Southern audience, Clinton called her "a fiscal conservative." He noted that Hugh Shelton, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a North Carolinian, as well as 34 retired generals and admirals had endorsed her.

"Why did they endorse a girl for president?" Clinton asked. "They all agree that we need to bring our soldiers home from Iraq."

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