BYPASS PROCEDURE Well-wishers inundate Clinton as he awaits heart surgery

Vice President Cheney called to share his own experiences.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
NEW YORK -- Bill Clinton was flooded with get-well wishes from around the globe and across party lines Saturday as he stayed upbeat in a Manhattan hospital room awaiting life-saving heart surgery early this week.
As more than 15,000 messages streamed onto his presidential library Web site and flower arrangements arrived throughout the day, Clinton visited with his family in a private wing at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, sources said.
His daughter, Chelsea, arrived about 1 p.m., and his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, showed up a short while later.
Cheney offers support
Among the calls he received was from Vice President Dick Cheney, who has suffered four heart attacks and underwent his own quadruple bypass surgery in 1988.
"I just called to let him know we were thinking about him," Cheney told reporters aboard Air Force Two. "I've been through a similar experience before. The key was to have the good sense to go get checked if you thought you had a problem, which he obviously did."
Cheney said he told Clinton about having undergone a quadruple bypass 16 years ago.
"I was living proof of the wonders of modern medicine," Cheney said.
The vice president spoke to reporters en route to a fund-raiser in Columbus, Ga., from a campaign rally in Roswell, N.M.
Clinton conceded to CNN's Larry King that he's "a little scared, but not much," about his upcoming bypass surgery.
The 58-year-old Clinton entered the hospital early Friday morning after complaining of chest pain. Doctors discovered a "substantial" blockage in several arteries.
Sources familiar with the diagnosis said the surgery, expected Monday or Tuesday, would likely be a quadruple bypass, and that Clinton will remain in the hospital until then.
Campaigning ends
Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe, who spoke with Clinton on Friday, said, "He was so glad that this thing got discovered, that they're going to be able to take care of it."
McAuliffe said that the avid campaigner was probably frustrated that he had to shelve plans to hit the trail for Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee.
"I told him I need him out on the campaign trail. ... He laughed and he told us this was as far as he was going for us," McAuliffe said. "I think we're just going to have to see how it goes."
His stepfather, Dick Kelley, in Little Rock, Ark., said he was sure Clinton was frustrated about being sidelined during the campaign.
"I think his plans were to help Kerry," Kelley told the New York Daily News. "But I think he still has time to help him. ... He's a fighter, you know. And I'm sure everything will go well."
Clinton's Web site posted messages of hope that poured in from as far away as Saudi Arabia and Canada.
Advice
There was also impromptu medical advice.
"I am a Reagan Democrat and have been since 1978 when I first registered to vote," wrote J. Porter. "While I did not vote for President Clinton nor agreed with a lot of his points of view, I always liked him.
"We do have one thing in common," the writer added. "In March of 2002 I underwent quad bypass surgery. So I know what he will be going through in the coming hours, days, and months. My prayers are with him. God Speed!"
W. Lambert in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, wrote, "Mr. President, God Bless you and may you have a speedy recovery."