November thaw for Clinton, Obama

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.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/80614.html#ixzz25Uobgg2g