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Bill Clinton echoes his wife, urges Democrats to unite for Obama |
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Written by Lee-Anne Goodman, THE CANADIAN PRESS
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Thursday, 28 August 2008 |
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton addresses the Democratic National Convention in Denver. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Charlie Neibergall
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DENVER - A newly conciliatory Bill Clinton put his bitterness behind him on Wednesday, following the tone set by his wife a night earlier when he passionately urged the Democratic party to come together and stop another four years of Republican rule by propelling Barack Obama to the White House.
"I want all of you who supported her to vote for Barack Obama in November," Clinton told thousands of cheering delegates at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night.
The former president compared his fight for the White House 16 years ago to Obama's, saying they have both wrongly faced charges of inexperience.
"Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be commander in chief," Clinton said. "Sound familiar? It didn't work in 1992, because we were on the right side of history. And it won't work in 2008, because Barack Obama is on the right side of history."
Ironically, Clinton was among those critics who complained that Obama was too junior to be president as he campaigned during Hillary Clinton's unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination. But following the tone set by his wife a night earlier, the 42nd president of the United States said he now fully supported the Obama's bid for the White House.
Clinton reminded the thousands of exuberant Democrats that Hillary Clinton had assured the crowd she would do everything possible to ensure Obama, her onetime fierce rival for the Democratic nomination, won the presidency.
"That makes two of us," Clinton, looking fit and rested, said to roars from the crowd. "Barack Obama is the man for this job . . . Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States."
By most accounts, it must have been a difficult endorsement for Clinton to make, although there was little sign Wednesday night of the man said to be still fuming about his wife's loss to Obama.
Privately, Clinton apparently believes Obama and his team haven't paid Hillary Clinton the respect she was due in the aftermath of her loss, and is apparently miffed they've done little to seek his counsel given he was the only Democrat to win two terms in office in more than 60 years and left office with a high approval rating.
The former Arkansas governor was not the night's keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention.
That honour was reserved for Joe Biden, Obama's vice-presidential running mate - but Clinton's appearance was among the most hotly anticipated of the four-day event due to rumours about his lingering anger over his wife's loss.
He's been in Denver since Tuesday, but had said nothing publicly that suggested his wounds had healed. Instead, he kept a low profile - something his friends and colleagues have said is difficult for him - and avoided talking to the media about the tensions between the Obama and Clinton camps.
"Must be killing him," Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen said earlier this week.
Clinton established a lucrative niche for himself as an adored senior statesman and sought-after public speaker when he left the White House after two terms in 2000, but that was before his wife's unsuccessful run for the presidency.
A new and startlingly different Clinton emerged during Hillary Clinton's bid to become the Democratic presidential candidate. He's been accused of contributing heavily to his wife's loss because of what many describe as his nasty, down-in-the-gutter attempts to ensure she beat Barack Obama.
He was an attack dog during the primary race, saying Obama's opposition to the Iraq war was a "fairy tale" in addition to suggesting he lacked the experience to lead the country.
When he compared Obama's win in South Carolina to Jesse Jackson's victories there in the 1980s, he angered some black leaders who felt Clinton was dismissing Obama's historic run for the White House. A seething Clinton responded that it was Obama's campaign that "played the race card on me."
In Denver this week, some defended Clinton as a man who was simply looking out for his wife during the heat of battle.
"That's one of the things I admire about him - he's a real spouse and he reacts the way a real spouse does," Howard Wilson, former communications director for Hillary Clinton's campaign, said earlier this week.
"He didn't like when his wife was attacked, and he responded accordingly, and that's the way I hope my spouse would have reacted if I was attacked."
A teary-eyed Clinton beamed from the audience at the Pepsi Center on Tuesday night as he watched his wife deliver a conciliatory speech that's being lauded as the best of her political career. He had a hand in writing the speech, which aimed to unite a party still wounded in the aftermath of the bruising battle for the nomination.
For all the private and public turmoil in their marriage, it's clear Clinton is a man ferociously protective of his wife. Some said he took her loss even harder than she did.
Earlier this week, there were reports that he's still so steamed at the Obama team that he was skipping the presidential nominee's eagerly anticipated acceptance speech to the convention in Invesco Stadium on Thursday night. His handlers confirmed Wednesday he would not attend, but only because he didn't want to steal any spotlight from Obama.
Some suggest that regardless of Clinton's behaviour both during and after the primaries, Obama would be wise to take advice from him, particularly on the economic front.
"Mr. Clinton sought and often managed to convince Americans that the global economy was an opportunity and not a threat," the Washington Post said in an editorial on Wednesday, chiding Obama for his protectionist stance on trade issues.
"Whatever his legacy from this campaign, that legacy of his presidency should be built upon."
Others say Clinton's behaviour during his wife's campaign was unseemly and beneath him.
"He's sort of yesterday's man trying to be today's man and he seems angry about it," said Shawn Bowler, a political scientist at the University of California at Riverside.
"He doesn't seem to know what to do with himself, and focused so much energy on his wife's campaign and when it didn't go their way, he got quite nasty."
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 28 August 2008 )
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