THIS WAS President Clinton in his teacher mode as he addressed the cheering students of Cuyahoga Community College, in Parma, Ohio. The only problem was that they were getting drenched in a downpour and the fainter hearts were creeping away before he finished.
As always, the President's light touch goes down well with crowds. "I won't let the rain bother me if you don't let it bother you. How's that? I'm going to put on my rain coat. I cheat a little bit."
There was more sodden laughter as he remarked that "I'm the only president in history who has ever come to Parma twice just to eat pierogies." For the uninitiated, pierogies are a sweet Ukrainian bun and of course the President has a notoriously sweet tooth which is half under control.
Ohio, with its large ethnic groups from Eastern Europe, is one of the so-called "battleground states" which presidential candidates fight fiercely over and usually need to win to get to the White House.
Bob Dole has also been courting Ohio, but even his own party seem to be giving up on him. The Clinton spokespersons were gloating as they quoted senior Republican politicians expressing their despair with the Dole campaign.
In Ohio, the Republican chairman, Mr Robert Bennett, told the New York Times: "I'll be honest with you. Nothing has changed in 75 days. We're down 7,8,9 - nothing's moved. Clinton's support is a millimetre thick and a mile wide."
Just to make sure none of us missed the good news for the President, the travelling White House press office issued a list of press quotes of "what Republicans are saying about the Dole campaign". If they're true, a landslide is on the way.
And the war of words over contributions from foreign companies does not let up as the Clinton campaign crisscrosses the country. The Dole camp made hay last week with the revelations that the huge Indonesian Lippo group is helping to fund the Democratic campaign, and that a fund-raiser was even held in a Buddhist temple in Los Angeles at which nuns were writing cheques.
But the Clinton camp is bouncing back. Yet another list was produced for the press, showing over $2.4 million was donated to the Republican party from the US subsidiaries of foreign companies, some of the largest sums from British ones. Such donations are legal as long as they come from the US-based subsidiaries and not the parent companies, but there are doubts that this was the case with the Indonesian money or Lippo-suction as it has been nicknamed.
Then the Clinton campaign was on the move again. This swing began on Sunday in New Jersey and New York and arrived in Cleveland, Ohio at 2 a.m. Monday. Now it was time to leave Ohio after a few hours and fly to Detroit in Michigan - another battleground, before heading for Florida.
Later in the Cobo Centre in Detroit he was welcomed enthusiastically by the coalition of churches describing themselves as "Michigan Clergy United Supports President Clinton". Some 1,800 people, mainly African-American, representing 350 congregations, which included Protestant, Catholic, Muslim and Jewish believers, crowded into the hall.
William Jefferson Clinton had come to them four years ago to ask for their votes. After over him and for him, they told him he was going to get them again this time.
On a lighter note, the White House spokesman, Mr Mike McCurry, told The Irish Times that if possible, the President will announce on this trip that he is definitely going to Ireland in December for the EU-US summit. And that means the Ballybunnion golf game with Dick Spring could yet happen.