LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton stood by her husband during his eight years in the White House. On Tuesday, he returned the favor, exhorting overflow crowds in Indiana to send his wife to the Oval Office to help steer the U.S. through rough times at home and abroad.

Saying most Americans think the country is already in a recession and want troops home from Iraq, former President Bill Clinton called his wife the best prepared candidate to bring what one supporter's sign said was "change you can count on."

"In a sentence, that's what this election is about," Clinton said.

More than 500 people turned out at a community center in Lawrenceburg, a southern Indiana city of 4,500 people just across the state line from Cincinnati. Former Indiana first lady Judy O'Bannon introduced Clinton, who also appeared later in Richmond and Fort Wayne.

He said he liked his trips to small-town America to campaign for his wife.

"It's all riding on you," he said. "Places like Lawrenceburg have carried her this far ... and they will carry her to the nomination and to the presidency if you will stick with her."

Clinton's visit was a prelude to a swing through Indiana by the candidate herself on Thursday. Hillary Clinton plans to be in Terre Haute, Anderson and Evansville that day in her battle with Sen. Barack Obama for the state's 72 delegates. Obama, of Illinois, was in Plainfield on Saturday, and party officials expect to see more of both candidates before the state's May 6 primary.

Clinton struck a cordial note toward Obama, saying Democrats had two solid candidates. He was slightly stronger in his comments about presumptive GOP nominee John McCain.

He compared McCain's approach of seeing the Iraq war through to the end to taking in a neighbor who has lost a home in a fire, letting him sleep on your couch indefinitely.

"If your neighbor is still on the couch after five years, what do you know? It's not about the fire anymore, it's about not having to get off the couch. That's where we are in Iraq. It's not about the fire anymore."

A Republican National Committee spokesman said later that despite her husband's remarks, Hillary Clinton lacked credibility on Iraq.

"She wants to withdraw our troops in a way that will allow al Qaeda to declare victory," said RNC spokesman Chris Taylor. "The reality is that the American people want to win in Iraq and Senator McCain understands this and he is the only candidate who has the experience necessary to bring our troops home and bring them home in victory and honor."

Bill Clinton repeated his themes during stops in Richmond and Fort Wayne.

More than 300 people gathered inside a Richmond fire station to hear him and another 100 or so listened to him on a loudspeaker outside as he focused on health care, the economy and the war and made his case for Hillary Clinton.

George Ferriell of Richmond, who got his campaign sign autographed by Bill Clinton, was impressed.

"I didn't feel politics in the air. He was really up front with us. It was really nice to have someone like him here," Ferriell told the Palladium-Item.

A standing-room-only crowd greeted Clinton enthusiastically at the Grand Wayne Center in Fort Wayne, where he touted what he called the economic and other successes of his two terms as president, and urged people to vote for Hillary Clinton if they wanted those days back.

Fort Wayne television station WANE reported that Clinton's hypothetical response to those who questioned his success was: "What part of the '90s did you not like — peace or prosperity?"

Clinton said he believes the country's best days are still ahead. And he claimed he would campaign for his wife even if they weren't married.

"She wears well," he said during the stop in Lawrenceburg. "They beat up on her for 16 years and she just gets stronger and stronger and stronger. We don't want to go to all of this trouble and lose this election."

Though Hillary Clinton trails Obama in the delegate count, supporters at the southern Indiana rally said her time as a New York senator and first lady gives her an edge.

"I just really think she's more experienced than him and could probably do a better job," said Dallas Gulley, 75, of Sunman.

Obama has 1,598 delegates, while Clinton has 1,487, according to an Associated Press count. It takes 2,025 delegates to secure the Democratic nomination for president, making Indiana a potentially crucial state for the first time in decades.