Former US president Bill Clinton gave terse backing to Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama on Tuesday, as his wife returned to politics for the first time since her agonizing primary defeat.
Timed to coincide with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s reappearance in Congress, Bill Clinton issued a one-sentence statement through his spokesman to put a lid on months of fireworks on the party’s nominating campaign trail.
“President Clinton is obviously committed to doing whatever he can and is asked to do to ensure Senator Obama is the next president of the United States,” spokesman Matt McKenna said.
PHOTO: AP
Hillary Clinton said the Democrats must unite after her bruising primary fight with Obama to maximize their chances of success against Republican John McCain in November’s presidential election.
But Bill Clinton chose not to declare his allegiance to Obama in public. And he is not scheduled to speak at the first joint campaign rally between his wife and the nominee tomorrow in the New Hampshire town of Unity.
After greeting dozens of staff and well-wishers gathered on the Senate steps, Hillary Clinton told reporters that tomorrow would “be a symbolic event that I hope will rally the Democratic Party behind our nominee.”
Asked about running as Obama’s vice presidential nominee, the New York senator said: “You know, it is not something that I think about. This is totally Senator Obama’s decision and that’s the way it should be.”
And Clinton, nearly three weeks after conceding to Obama and pledging an all-out joint effort against McCain, warned disaffected supporters who might be considering a protest vote for the Republican to reconsider.
“If you care about the issues I care about and the future that I outlined during my campaign, then you really have to stay with us in the Democratic Party and vote for Senator Obama to be our next president,” she said.
Meanwhile, Obama reached out to some of the US’ most visible citizens — Hollywood stars who threw their support and abundant cash behind a presidential candidate whose historic White House bid could easily become the stuff of movies.
The fundraising gala in Los Angeles on Tuesday marked a decided push by Obama to shore up private funding for his race against McCain roughly a week after the Democrat backtracked on a promise to use public money for his presidential race.
That decision leaves the Illinois senator, who has already shattered fundraising records by raising US$287 million by the end of last month, free to raise and spend hundreds of millions of dollars for the general election.
Obama’s campaign refused to say how many millions he and the Democratic National Committee raised at the gala, but Democratic officials put the number at close to US$5 million. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the numbers publicly.
The event — in which top tickets went for more than US$30,000 — drew top-tier celebrities like actors Don Cheadle, Dennis Quaid and boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard. Also in attendance was Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am, who created two music videos for Obama during the primary season — including one called Yes We Can that set music to clips from his speeches and became an Internet sensation.
Beyond the fundraising, the event reflects the continuing push by Obama to pull together support within the party after a divisive primary battle against Clinton, whose husband had long been viewed as a darling of the entertainment industry.
Obama appealed to the those in the crowd who might have supported Clinton. The long primary, he said, “I know caused some heartburn and some frustration.”
He said he and Clinton “were allies then and we’re allies now.”
Earlier in the day, Obama asked his finance team to help Clinton pay off a debt of at least US$10 million from her failed campaign.
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