|
UNITY, New Hampshire: Former White House foes Barack Obama and
Hillary Clinton stood united in Unity Friday to bury their
differences in public and urge Democrats of every faction to take
back America.
The senators paid each other fulsome tribute at
their first joint rally, in speeches that were heavy on the need for
reconciliation and laced with humorous asides about their bruising
fight for the Democratic nomination.
“I am proud to call her a friend and I know
how much we need both Bill and Hillary Clinton as a party and as a
country in the months and years to come,” Obama told the crowd in
the tiny, and aptly named, New Hampshire town of Unity.
“We need them, we need them badly—not just
my campaign, but the American people need their service and their
vision and their wisdom,” said the Illinois senator, 46.
“For 16 months, Senator Clinton and I have
shared the stage as rivals for the nomination,” he said after
sharing a chartered flight from Washington to New Hampshire with the
former first lady, 60.
“But today, I could not be happier, and more
honored, and more moved that we’re sharing this stage as allies to
bring about the fundamental changes that this country so desperately
needs.”
While former president Bill Clinton has given
only tepid backing to Obama, his wife upbraided any of her
disaffected supporters who may be considering a vote for Republican
John McCain in November’s election.
Both the Clintons made a financial gesture of
unity by each donating the maximum legal limit of $2,300 to the
Obama campaign, aides said, after Obama gave the same amount to help
retire her whopping campaign debts.
Clinton drew laughs for remarking, with
considerable understatement, that her bitter five-month primary
fight with Obama had generated “spirited dialogue.”
However, the New York senator said that from
pulling out of the Iraq war to guaranteeing universal healthcare,
the choice could not be starker.
“But in the end, after eight devastating years
under President [George W.] Bush, Senator McCain is simply offering
four years more,” Clinton said.
“In the end, Senator McCain and President Bush
are like two sides of the same coin, and it doesn’t amount to a
whole lot of change.”
“But if you think we need a new course, a new
agenda, then vote for Barack Obama and you will get the change that
you and we need and deserve,” she said to sustained applause from
a crowd put by police at more than 4,000 people.
“And I know what we start here in this field
in Unity will end on the steps of the Capitol when Barack Obama
takes the oath of office as our next president,” Clinton added.
The senators came to Unity, where each candidate
scored exactly 107 votes in January’s New Hampshire primary, after
they attended a private meeting with Clinton’s top fundraisers
late Thursday in Washington’s Mayflower Hotel.
-- AFP
|
