Speculation of Clinton as running mate intensifies

Source: Agencies  |   2008-7-11  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama gets a warm greeting from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton during a campaign stop in New York yesterday. More in photo gallery

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BARACK Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who fought bitterly for the United States Democratic presidential nomination, continued their chummy rounds in New York yesterday, raising cash as well as speculation that she may have risen to the top of his list of possible running mates.

But, the profound interest in who Obama will pick to join him on the November ballot did little to blunt new embarrassment that sprang up over comments by Reverend Jesse Jackson, the civil rights advocate who shares Obama's Chicago roots. Jackson was caught making disparaging remarks about the presumptive Democratic nominee on a live television microphone.

At yesterday's fundraiser, Obama stressed the need for equal pay and child care, reaching out to Democratic women, some still smarting from Clinton's loss and slow to embrace him.

"As the son, grandson and husband of hardworking mothers, I don't accept an America that makes women choose between their kids and their careers," the likely Democratic nominee said to an audience of 2,300 "Women for Obama" breakfast fundraiser. "Let's be clear. These issues - equal pay, work-family balance, child care - these are not simply women's issues."

On stage with him, rival-turned-ally Clinton said, "I'm grateful for all of you who have come together ... I know you'll be there in November." They were joined by Obama's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng.

The fundraiser was a momentary distraction from Jackson's comments, which received heavy airing on cable television news. During taping of a Fox television interview last Sunday, Jackson complained during a period when he thought the microphone was not on that Obama was talking down to the black community with his repeated challenges to African-American men not to shrug off their duties as fathers. Jackson's comments included a slang reference to wanting to cut off Obama's testicles.

Jackson apology