Obama: No Controversy with the Clintons

Submitted by jmeasley on Thu, 08/07/2008 - 20:07.

Barack Obama spoke to the media and did his best to play down reports that there are still are still some bad feelings between himself and the Clintons.

When Obama was asked about a speaking role for Hillary Clinton at the convention he said, “I spoke to Senator Clinton this week, she’s campaigning for me in Nevada and Florida and she’s very enthusiastic about the need for a unified party and I think we’re going to have a terrific convention, as is true with all conventions we’re still working out the mechanics of the four days and our staff is in communications with Senator Clinton’s staff but I don’t anticipate any problems.” (Mrs. Clinton is widely expected to speak in primetime on the second night of the convention).

Obama also sought to downplay a recent Time magazine story about the bruised feelings of the Clintons, and their supporters, “There hasn’t been controversy other than what you guys are projecting right now,” Obama said. He added that his campaign is talking to the Clintons, not Hillary’s supporters, “We’re not talking to those people and we’re talking to directly to the Clinton campaign people and it has gone seamlessly.”

Obama praised Bill Clinton for keeping his cool during a recent ABC News interview, “He (President Clinton) was very supportive. I thought he showed extraordinary restraint in a fairly provocative interview while he was on his trip.” After a grueling primary campaign, I think it would not be surprising if the Clintons were having a hard time getting over the loss. It was such a close race, that it would be hard for anyone involved to just put it aside.
The real sore point between the two camps is that many Clinton supporters don’t feel that Obama has done enough to help retire Hillary Clinton’s campaign debt.

If you read between the lines a bit, what Obama is saying is that there is no personal problem between the two sides. The problems exist in the media and with the supporters on each side. The polls show that three quarters of Clinton supporters have moved to Obama, so I don’t think that this is a unity issue, but only some lingering feelings left over from a close campaign.