Bill Clinton came home to Arkansas on Monday to turn out Democrats in a state that has become a bright shade of red in the 22 years since he left the governor's office for the White House.

He didn't mince words.

"The president," he said, in reference to Barack Obama, "is unpopular in Arkansas."

It was a fact so obvious it was surprising Clinton said it at all.

Obama recorded an approval rating in Arkansas of just 31 percent in an NBC/Marist poll last month, nearly two years after he lost the state to Mitt Romney by 24 points.

In many ways, the deep opposition to Obama is why Clinton was there in the first place, filling the role of Southern surrogate he has played in every election since 2008. After all these years, Clinton is still very much welcome in Arkansas, even if Obama is not.

Clinton's own popularity was evident from the get-go, when Arkansas's senior Democratic senator, Mark Pryor, asked the former president to take a selfie with him, in a rather blatant bid to win the affection of the college-age audience.

Making the first of four appearances on university campuses, Clinton urged voters not to succumb to Republican pressure to take out their anger at Obama on Pryor, or on the party's nominee for governor, Mike Ross.