Clinton rallies Atlanta support for Jim Martin

'Hopes of America are riding with Georgia,' former president tells Clark Atlanta crowd.

Former President Bill Clinton urged Georgia voters on Wednesday to send the man who will sit in his former office one more deputy - Jim Martin.

Clinton told a chilly crowd at Clark Atlanta University to return to the polls on Dec. 2 and elect Martin to the U.S. Senate and reject incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

Martin, Clinton said, is "the kind of guy we ought to have in public life. His opponent was elected on a false premise six years ago and is running on a false premise today."

Martin, a Democrat, and Chambliss are in the runoff because neither received a majority of the vote Nov. 4, although Chambliss led that first vote with 49.8 percent to more than 46 percent for Martin. The runoff has become increasingly important as Democrats inch closer to holding 60 votes, enough to end filibusters. The party has 58, now that Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens conceded defeat in Alaska. The Georgia race and a pending recount in Minnesota remain.

The race is garnering national attention. Chambliss has been bolstered by high-profile visits from former GOP presidential nominee John McCain and Mike Huckabee, and Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani have also planned trips to Georgia.

Clinton is Martin's first big-name. Former Vice President Al Gore will be here Sunday on Martin's behalf.

Martin welcomed the former president's help.

"You have left us a great legacy," Martin told Clinton. "You gave us an economy that worked for the middle class, a government that put families before big business and a nation that was building a brighter future for our children."

Hours before thousands gathered on the quad at Clark Atlanta, Chambliss was praised and endorsed by the executive vice-president of the National Rifle Association.

Wayne LaPierre said in Atlanta that Chambliss is needed back in the Senate to protect gun rights.

"We're going to have some real battles in Washington," LaPierre said, who added that Obama will "break his promise" to protect gun rights.

Martin's campaign rejected the notion that their candidate would be anything but a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment.

At Clark Atlanta later, Clinton warned the nearly 3,000 on the cold quad that runoffs are tricky.

"I've helped in ones we've won and I've helped in ones we've lost," he said. "The person who wins this election will be the one whose supporters want it the most. You can win in this thing if you want it bad enough. You just have to decide how bad you want it."

Clinton's appearance had been scheduled for a campus gymnasium, which holds 1,200, but Martin spokesman Matt Canter said demand for tickets persuaded the campaign to move it to the central campus quad. Canter said more than 3,000 were on the quad at one point, although some left rather than stand in the cold and wait for Clinton, who ran late. Several came armed with copies of Clinton's best-selling memoir, "My Life." Lauren Green, 18, of Hiram, was among them.

Green said she brought the book in hopes of getting it autographed. As she was stuck behind a metal barricade, that didn't appear likely.

"You don't know what to expect," said Green.

Green voted this year in her first election and stood in the cold Wednesday to back Martin.

"The hopes of America are riding with Georgia," Clinton said, adding that Martin would not be a rubber stamp for Obama. "We don't check our brains at the door."

He also took several shots at Chambliss, especially the incumbent's claim to represent "a firewall" against Democratic power.

"This guy's trying to give you chapter two of a song that wasn't worth a flip when he sang it the first time," Clinton said.

"This country doesn't need a firewall against the future. It needs a bridge to the future."

- Staff Writer Jim Tharpe contributed to this article.