Former foes united on path to poll

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-28  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

FORMER foes Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday launched their first joint campaign, as they seek to heal rifts caused by their bitter battle for the Democratic presidential nomination and unite the party behind one candidate.

The event in the aptly named town of Unity, New Hampshire, was to be their first joint campaign appearance since Clinton bowed out of the race three weeks ago. It comes a day after Obama met dozens of Clinton's top financial backers, and Clinton urged them to support her ex-rival in the race against Republican John McCain.

Obama and Clinton arrived at Reagan National Airport just outside Washington yesterday morning in separate cars, greeting each other on the tarmac with a kiss and a handshake.

They sat next to each other on the plane as pilots readied for takeoff. Both Democrats need one another right now as they move to the next phase of the campaign.

Obama is depending on the former first lady to give her voters and donors a clear signal that she does not consider it a betrayal for them to shift their loyalty his way.

Clinton won convincingly among several voter groups during the primaries, including working class voters and older women - groups that McCain has actively courted since she left the race.

Clinton, for her part, needs the Illinois senator's help in paying down US$10 million of her campaign debt, plus an assurance that she will be treated respectfully as a top surrogate on the campaign trail and at the Democratic Party convention later this summer.

Clinton's campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, said yesterday he would still like to see Obama tap Clinton to be his running mate, but said Clinton would campaign hard for her former rival regardless.

"Whatever he decides to do, whatever role for Hillary, she is ready to go, and she will do whatever they ask her to do in the fall campaign," McAuliffe told CNN.

Fund-raisers