Barack Obama,
in one of his more revealing public moments in 2008, expressed that
sentiment about another Clinton. It also sums up, more or less, the way
the current occupant of the White House feels about the last Democratic
president to win reelection,
William Jefferson Clinton.
When the pair gets together the former president does
much of the talking, to Obama’s occasional annoyance. But it’s Obama who
asks for all the favors.
BFFs they are not and probably never will be. But after a troubled
beginning, the collaboration seems to be working. The two presidents
have spoken a few times in the past few months, sources said.
And Clinton’s big Wednesday night speech here, a prime-time slot
usually reserved for the vice president, will be the most closely
watched address of the three-day convention, second only to Obama’s
stadium speech a night later. Its success is critical for Obama, a
deeply polarizing candidate who badly needs his more conservative
predecessor’s clout as a validator among independent voters turned off
by massive government spending.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who described the Obama-Clinton relationship
as one with “up-and-down” moments, conceded the two probably don’t
“watch ballgames together” even after their rapprochement. But he said
their relationship is mutually beneficial, as the aftermath of the 2010
earthquake in Haiti shows.
No comments:
Post a Comment