Clinton, Obama take first steps toward unity

Friday, June 27, 2008 |
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton has already loaned Barack Obama her top fundraisers. Now the former rivals are going to see if she can do the same with voters.
When the two Democrats step onstage today in New Hampshire, it will be their first joint campaign appearance and their first public display of rapprochement, as they seek to set aside differences and unify the party while helping each other.
Following a private fundraiser with Clinton’s top donors in Washington on Thursday, the two were flying together today aboard Obama’s campaign plane to a rally in Unity, N.H., population 1,700 — a carefully chosen venue in a key general election battleground state.
Aside from the symbolism of its name, Unity awarded exactly 107 votes to each candidate in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary in January. Clinton narrowly won the state’s contest, setting in motion an epic coast-to-coast war of attrition between the two candidates that ended June 3, when Obama clinched the nomination. Clinton suspended her campaign four days later.
Obama and Clinton arrived at Reagan National Airport just outside Washington this morning at the same time in separate cars, greeting each other on the tarmac with a kiss and a handshake. They sat next to each on the plane as pilots readied for takeoff.
The Unity gathering was the latest and most visible event in a series of gestures the two senators have made in the past two days in hopes of settling the hard feelings of the long primary season.
Obama is depending on former first lady to give her voters and donors a clear signal that she doesn’t consider it a betrayal for them to shift their loyalty his way.
Clinton needs the Illinois senator’s help in paying down $10 million of her campaign debt.
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