With Democrats trailing late in Virginia’s contest for governor, former President Bill Clinton lent his star power to R. Creigh Deeds yesterday during a lunchtime rally for the party faithful. “Never underestimate this man,“ Clinton said of Deeds, who soundly defeated a Clinton friend, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe, in a June 9 primary.

President Barack Obama will make a late campaign appearance with Democratic gubernatorial nominee R. Creigh Deeds a week before Election Day. The time and site of the Oct. 27 appearance will be announced later, the Deeds campaign said. News of the visit ended speculation among some pundits that the president might not make another foray into the contest for fear of losing political capital, because Deeds trails Republican Bob McDonnell in the polls.

Former President Bill Clinton will journey to Virginia Tuesday to campaign for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds, his campaign staff said today.

WASHINGTON—Bill Clinton says a vast, right-wing conspiracy that once targeted him is now focusing on President Barack Obama. The ex-president made the comment in a television interview yesterday when he was asked about one of the signature moments of the Monica Lewinsky affair over a decade ago. Back then, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton used the term “vast, right-wing conspiracy” to describe how her husband’s political enemies were out to destroy his presidency.

Bill Clinton flew to Pyongyang and returned with Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the American journalists North Korea arrested and, after a kangaroo trial, sentenced to 12 years in prison. Kim Jong Il rates as the new Talleyrand. According to Politico.com, the White House learned the communists would release Ling and Lee if the U.S. dispatched the former president to fetch them. It was not a bad deal, certainly not so servile as the arms-for-hostages gambit of the Reagan years. Kim pardoned Ling and Lee, which means the two remain guilty in the eyes of North Korea’s commissars. He yielded naught.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee thank former President Bill Clinton for helping end “the nightmare of our lives,“ as they faced the prospect of hard labor confinement in North Korea.

In Kenya, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that the two journalists released from North Korea are “extremely excited” to be on their way back to the United States.

His mission accomplished, former President Bill Clinton left Pyongyang early today accompanied by American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il pardoned the women from their 12-year prison sentences. Clinton and the two Californians were flying back to the U.S., his spokesman Matt McKenna said, less than 24 hours after the former president landed in the North Korean capital on a private, humanitarian trip to secure their release.

Sen. Lindsay Graham says he hopes former President Clinton’s visit to North Korea can yield some progress on nuclear issues as well as winning the release of two jailed American journalists.

Former President Bill Clinton met Tuesday with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on the first day of a surprise mission to Pyongyang to negotiate the release of two Americans, holding “exhaustive” talks on a wide range of topics, state-run media said.

The United Nations has named former President Bill Clinton as its special envoy to Haiti.

With former President Bill Clinton in tow, Democrat Terry McAuliffe pitched his business experience as a stronger asset in this fall’s governor’s race than his two rivals’ legislative background. In the third campaign swing across Virginia with the former president known for a record peacetime economic expansion, McAuliffe focused on experience in a strategy to define the rest of the field as part of a legislature that too often impeded progress.

Former President Bill Clinton told Virginians yesterday that difficult economic times call for a governor who can help manage the state’s budget, preserve jobs and maintain important services. Clinton spoke at two campaign stops in the Washington suburbs for his longtime political friend Terry McAuliffe, who is seeking to win the Democratic gubernatorial primary on June 9.

Former President Bill Clinton is preparing to campaign today in Northern Virginia for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe.

Former President Bill Clinton is adding a stop in Northern Virginia in his second swing across the state for Democratic gubernatorial prospect Terry McAuliffe. The McAuliffe organization said yesterday that Clinton will appear in the Washington suburbs May 13—one day before a previously announced stop in Norfolk.