Moments after he strode onto the stage at a campaign event in Collingswood last week, Gov. Corzine cracked a telling joke at his own expense.

"Bet you all came to see me."

They had not. The main attraction was former President Bill Clinton, who never met a crowd he couldn't seduce. (God love him, the globe-trotting Southern expat still delivers Arkansas asides like, "I'm just talkin'. I'm not trying to give you any whoop-de-do.")

Corzine spent the week being upstaged by his more gregarious guests. Talk about party poopers.

Women practically threw their Wonderbras at President Obama during a rally at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

"I love you!" a giddy fan screamed.

"I love you back," Obama replied instinctively before inadvertently dissing his host. Voters, the president claimed, don't expect slick perfection from their leaders.

"Jon's hair kind of goes frizzy," Obama noted. "Sometimes his beard gets a little scraggly."

Even Vice President Biden, who stumped with the governor in Edison, brought the promise of Saturday Night Live-worthy gaffes. Has any late-night comic ever thought to impersonate Corzine?

Surely, the governor's handlers ran the pros and cons of calling in the heavy Democratic artillery this close to Election Day.

Corzine nearly died on the job, and now he's fighting for his political life.

Standing next to guys the voters are sweet on reminds them why they're sour on you.

Governor who?

On Corzine's YouTube channel, only one commercial features the governor talking directly into the camera, forcing a smile. Instead, many of the packages open with extreme close-ups of Republican Christopher J. Christie.

Isn't it the challenger who's supposed to run on the "not the other guy" platform? Shouldn't Corzine, after a stint in the U.S. Senate and a term in Trenton, be more comfortable in the spotlight telling his own story?

Corzine has spent an astonishing $120 million of his fortune running for office. But ask most New Jerseyans what they know about him - besides that he's rich, divorced, and partial to navy sweaters - and you'll draw blank stares.

The Wall Street king has humble Midwestern roots. He worked construction, played college basketball, served in the Marines. He's a doting grandpa.

Buried in his primary victory speech was a line that should be blaring from campaign ads every night: "As the son of a struggling farm family, I know what it's like to be on the long end of a shovel."

Natural politicians exploit the past and overshare.

To cope with economic calamity, Corzine crunches numbers but guards his emotions. Whatever he feels, he must think voters don't care.

Time to talk

Normally in New Jersey, an incumbent Democrat with unlimited funding wouldn't find himself in such a pickle. But Corzine has the misfortune of being the only governor running for reelection in this recession.

He has broken disapproval-ratings records, no small feat given that he had Jim McGreevey to beat.

With nine days until election, Corzine might want to hire that cutie-pie Olivia Nutter to star in a game-changing ad as she did for her dad.

If she's busy, the governor should launch his own charm offensive.

Voters may never love Corzine.

But they could fall in like with him.

It's been two years since our first and last sit-down. At the time, Corzine remained haunted by his car accident and undecided about whether to run for reelection.

"I'm blessed to be alive," Corzine told me. "If anything, I have a higher responsibility to use that life than I did before. I also understand my own vulnerabilities, probably better now than I've ever been willing to accept."

I pressed the governor for details, but he said, "That's the touchy-feely part." He couldn't imagine why it mattered. Can he now?

Monica Yant Kinney:

The candidates for governor

on how New Jersey has handled

the economic crisis. A1.

Contact Monica Yant Kinney at myant@phillynews.com or 215-854-4670. Read her recent work at http://go.philly.com/yantkinney