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Clinton, Obama, and Unity
June 27, 2008 9:19 AM
I’m on the Obama campaign plane right now. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, just got on. They match. He’s wearing a white shirt and baby blue tie, her pantsuit is the same color.
They just sat down next to one another on the plane.
Yes, they’re aware that we’re watching and filming from the cheap seats at the back of the plane.
We’re about to fly from Washington, DC, to Unity, NH, for the big UNITY show.
Hopefully it will be more convincing than last night.
"It was like a dentist's appointment," said one attendee of the "unity" meeting between Obama and Clinton and her top fundraisers at the Mayflower Hotel last night.
Much remains to be negotiated -- will Clinton get a roll call vote at the convention, as she wants? What will be her role on the campaign? Will Bill Clinton ever say anything nice about Obama?
And just how much of Clinton’s more than $10 million in debt will Obama help retire?
Before the event, Obama finance committee chair Penny Pritzker wrote a $4,600 check to Clinton from her and her husband.
"We're helping. It's important," Pritzker said.
Obama and his wife Michelle made a similar contribution.
The notion of the winner helping the loser retire her debt is kind of an odd thing, on its face, however commonplace. Clinton continued her campaign despite Obama’s all-but-insurmountable delegate lead and despite a lack of funds, going into debt to attack his fitness to be commander-in-chief.
And now she wants him and his supporters to help pay that back.
That, in fact, was the big applause line last night. "I'm going to need Hillary by my side campaigning during his election, and I'm going to need all of you,” Obama said, telling the crowd of Clinton supporters that he had told his top moneymen and moneywomen "to get out their checkbooks and start working to make sure Sen. Clinton -- the debt that's out there needs to be taken care of."
Standing O.
"I recognize that this room shared the same passion that a roomful of my supporters would show,” Obama also said. “I do not expect that passion to be transferred. Sen. Clinton is unique, and your relationships with her are unique." But he added, "Sen. Clinton and I at our core agree deeply that this country needs to change."
Clinton for her part thanked her supporters and told them "we have to make it a priority in our lives to elect Barack Obama the next president of the United States. This was a hard-fought campaign. That's what made it so exciting and intense and why people's passions ran so high on both sides. I know my supporters have extremely strong feelings, and I know Barack's do as well. But we are a family, and we have an opportunity now to really demonstrate clearly we do know what's at stake, and we will do whatever it takes to win back this White House."
- jpt
June 27, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (171)
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Are we as a United States serious! What is the problem? We as a country are in deep trouble and all this back and fourth of who's better becoming a tiresome thorn everyones backside. Can we please return to conducting ourselves as reasonable adults and truely focus on why AMERICA is falling.
I believe that as occupants of this country we should ourseleves be the begining of change instead of looking to one man, remember we are his bosses with out us, the United Americans, our economy will continue to fail...
Posted by: DRK | Aug 7, 2008 1:15:03 AM
Clinton supporters are so angry! Why?
In these economic and military times do we not need a leader that can balance a budget and make correct decisions?
Hillary Clinton was a frontrunner with all the advantages that comes with having an ex-President as a spouse. Still, she ran a campaign that ended up 20 million dollars+ in debt, no plausible plan after Super Tuesday, no rebuttal for supporting the war, and no defense for continuing a campaign well after it was clear she would not prevail.
What in those actions would lead any sane, rational person to believe that Senator Clinton could lead America in its faultering times?
We need a change....and that change will be Obama. God bless America and Obama's leadership!
Posted by: change agent | Jul 4, 2008 10:35:58 AM
well,
after four years of obama or mccain,
we will all be gagging from something.
obama or mccain will be a disaster for the american people.
Posted by: jgaw | Jun 29, 2008 10:19:13 PM
The thought of her in office is enough to gag.
Posted by: David | Jun 29, 2008 10:12:40 PM
annoyingrabbit,
that is just party politics.
Posted by: w | Jun 28, 2008 11:41:44 AM
It is amazing we still have so many un-informed people in this country. After what the country has been through, I can not understand any decent, educated american would throw his or her vote away by voting for John McCain. Here we are with one of the most qualified canditate that this country has ever seen. A candidate capable of making history. A candidate that can unite not only the country but also has the ability to repair the damages that have done on our reputation around the world. Obama is the only candidate that can do that. Not McCain or Hillary. The primary is over people. It is time that we face reality and do whatever we can to elect Obama. He is real, sincere and is exactly what the country needs now.
Vote for Obama in november and you will be glad that you do. In case your forgot: More than 4000 of our young men and women have been unnecessary killed in Iraq. We have a huge mortgage crisis. Gas prices keep going up and up. We no longer a leader in human rights as a result of what happenned in Guantanamo and Abu Graid(Sorry for the spelling). The value of our dollar keeps declining. The deficit is enormous. We had surpplus last time a democrat was in the white house. We just can not afford an another term of republicans in the white house. It is time for no more blue and red states. It is time for this country to be united and resolve energy and health care problems. It is time for a change. Wake up America....
Posted by: Zobear | Jun 28, 2008 9:10:21 AM
Another Obama's lie completed/
Let's see how two people carry out.
Posted by: Felix Ko | Jun 28, 2008 2:42:05 AM
I'm flabbergasted. After all the ugly things that both Hilliary's and Obama's camp said to each other and about each other and now they have crawled into bed together?
Posted by: annoyingrabbit | Jun 28, 2008 1:13:46 AM
I don't even want to hear any woman or man tell us that we need to just follow along with Obama otherwise, they feel sorry for us, and what we are doing to the Democratic party is so unfair. I feel sorry for them because they want to keep sending the same message to men and to the democratic party. Do anything you want to women, treat them any way you want, because there is nothing they can do about it? They have not choice but to accept what we say and to accept our candidate and they have to do that because WE the men, said so! There is a clear choice. There is the choice to vote for Senator John MCCain and show the Democratic party how alienated they have caused us to feel, that we could not even stomach, voting for the candidate from our own party. If you want to feel sorry for someone, feel sorry for the gasbags and all the folks who stood idly by and allowed Hillary Clinton to be treated in such a disrespectful manner. You should feel sorry for them because they are the ones who have given John McCain the election in November. Point your wagging fingers and tongues in the correct direction. Don't feel sorry for me and the disenfranchised Hillary supporters and tell us all the horrors that will happen if John Mccain gets our votes! We've seen all the horrors that the Democratic majority has caused in the last year and half since the mandate that swept them into the majority. They are a bunch of do nothings. And, it is getting very difficult to see who the Republicans are and who the Democrats are any longer. This is the bigger thing that we are so enraged about! What is it that Obama said in the last few days? He declined public campaign funds so he could get wads and wads of money to outspend McCain in the election in November! Some democrat, he's a joke! And, what did he say today with Hillary Clinton standing by his side, "Women can do it better than us and they do it in heels." He's an idiot. He's such a sexist he doesn't even know when he is being one. I hope Bill Clinton, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, supports him in any way shape or form. He doesn't deserve the support of someone like Bill Clinton. He's not in the same leagure, NEVER! He's a flash in the pan, a motivational speaker, and that's all he is. I hope when we get done with him he can't even get elected to the position of dog catcher! Good riddance to him! And good riddance to any woman who doesn't have enough sense to drop him. We'll see what happens in the swing states. If they don't matter than why is everyone talking about them? We are entrenched in a grass roots movement in Ohio and PA already.Obama may have the big bucks but we have the advantage of being the ones who were abused by our own party and that makes our determination more than equal to his buck. Our percentage was around 24% that everyone said McCain would be getting from the HIllary supporters. Now, it is up to 26% and the election is several months away. I will be so happy to keep seeing that number go, up, and up, and up in the next several months.
Posted by: Mary Anne | Jun 28, 2008 12:41:18 AM
it may not be that bill will forget who HE is campaigning for as much as after listening to bill, THE PEOPLE will forget and start cheering for bill again.
Posted by: w | Jun 28, 2008 12:20:30 AM
Obama/Hill/Bill - the Democratic 2008 dream ticket. Obama better be careful campaigning with Hillary - her hubby might jump in the fray and forget who he is campaigning for.
Posted by: JustMe | Jun 27, 2008 10:55:17 PM
yes, that is what was said about bush, also.
he has a lot of good advisors around him to tell and help him.
see what we have got.
Posted by: well | Jun 27, 2008 7:15:37 PM
Jeez, you must understand that the Prez is just the hood ornament on the car. I trust Obama will fill the car with qualified advisers. The car needs to change direction quickly. That's a cliff up ahead. Do you really think the Chief Exec does it alone?
Posted by: Joe D | Jun 27, 2008 6:57:20 PM
google
the associations of barack obama
Posted by: well | Jun 27, 2008 5:28:41 PM
Isn't it GREAT to see an average American really make it big. Obama was raised by his single-mother with the help of his grandparents. He worked Hard, got a good education, and turned down large sums of money to go to work for the average American. What a great story. He raised his large sums of money for his campaign, not thru big corporate donors like many others, but thru average Americans giving $10 or $20 at a time. I suspect he is going to go down in history as one of the great presidents of all time. Obama will be Great in 2008!!!
Posted by: pt | Jun 27, 2008 5:09:31 PM
Veromo and PT .....McCain is where our votes are going...Obama will destroy this country with his political agenda...raise taxes, extreme affirmative action, social security increases, raise capital gains taxes,pay off someone else's mortgage, etc, etc,...liberal, liberal and not to my benefit...AND THE WAR WILL CONTINUE NO MATTER WHO WILL BE POTUS AND EVERYONE KNOWS THAT....MCCAIN 08
Posted by: michafaith | Jun 27, 2008 4:54:28 PM
Hello, fellow Democrats and especially to the ex-democrats who jumped out of the bandwagon because Hillary did not make it this time!!! I love the Clintons but this time happens for a reason..do we really need another 4 years of a Republican in the White House???? Think!!!!!!!and Decide what's best for our country.
Posted by: viromi z. | Jun 27, 2008 4:46:27 PM
It all comes down to whether or not you think we should continue the bush policies. If you think the war should continue indefinitely, while we spend $10,000,000,000 a month, and you think that bush has done well with the economy then mc-more-war is your man. If you think that it's time we start to get out of iraq and do some positive things for the average American instead of just the top 5% then vote for Obama.
Posted by: pt | Jun 27, 2008 4:44:15 PM
Obama has been flat ever since the nomination ended. My theory has provened itself: Obama needed Hillary to excite his campaign. But now that she's gone, he's been running on empty.
He's already selling out his campaign too. What a sell-out. He doesn't even care about gun control for a city like D.C. which has some of the worse crime-ridden ghettos in the country.
Obama = boring sell-out
Posted by: aintnorepub | Jun 27, 2008 4:27:44 PM
This 2005 interview with Tim Russert on Meet the Press make it very clear.
************************************
RUSSERT: The fact is you are different than George Bush.
SEN. McCAIN: No. No. The fact is that I have agreed with President Bush far more than I have disagreed. And on the transcendent issues, the most important issues of our day, I’ve been totally in agreement and support of President Bush.
--------------------------------------
As I said if you are satisfied with the way bush has handled the war and the economy then mc-more-war is your man. If you think this country can do better then vote for Obama.
Posted by: pt | Jun 27, 2008 4:18:19 PM
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