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 dollars 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.
But McCain supporter Jane Swift, a former acting governor for Massachusetts, muscled in to denounce Obama as all words.
The event in Unity "made me wish that Senator Obama had actually worked as hard to bridge the partisan divide in Washington DC during his short time there, as he is working hard apparently to bridge the divide in his own party with Hillary Clinton voters," she said.
The unity roadshow 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.
At that event, Obama gave Clinton a personal check for 2,300 dollars to help his defeated rival pay off her campaign debt of 22.5 million dollars.
The Obama campaign meanwhile announced that it was adding Neera Tanden, Clinton's former campaign policy director, to serve as his domestic policy director.
The wounds have not entirely healed. Clinton supporter Carole Stone-Oks, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, said at the Unity rally that she was now backing McCain.
"A smart, cute boy does not a president make," she said scornfully of Obama. But if he chose Clinton to be his vice-presidential running-mate, she would vote Democratic "in a minute," she added.
The former first lady had her own message to those like Stone-Oks who still harbor resentment at their heroine's agonizing loss.
"I urge you to remember who we are standing for in this election," Clinton said, listing single mothers juggling work and college, the sick without healthcare and Iraq veterans struggling to gain access to benefits.
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YouTube Mix for Barack Obama
Obama is a joke of a politician and you all know it. He's only leading the polls because of his skin colour and I'm not bashing that. Most black people I know are voting for him but can't tell me much about his views (other than the obvious). Yes, America needs change but what have the democrats done since taking over Congress and the majority ? NOTHING !!!
Get ready to tax increases and higher gas prices. Get ready for a North American union. BARACK IS A JOKE !!!
warehouse4 3 years ago
Says so in the bible?! LOL!!!
thadgrace 3 years ago
Rofl... McCain will finish the Iraq war? No, he will prolong a war that is never going to be won. It's pointless. Not only that, he wants to send us everywhere. Iraq does not WANT us there, they resent us. Why add to the deaths of both Iraq and all of the troops. Bush has association with known terrorists.. McCain probably does too.. it's political. But McCain wants to FINISH it? Rofl. That's bullshit. Obama has it right with removing the troops. We shouldn't even be in Iraq. Wrong country.
StarlitBeauty91 3 years ago
What scares me is his association with known terrorists. Raising taxes, health care and the whole nine yards. Isreal will take care of Iran but then the whole world will be involved. Says so in the Bible.
McCain will finish the Iraqi war and leave, not run away like scared wimp Obama is.
warehouse4 3 years ago
lol AT SCREAMINREIMAN BEING SCARED OF SPEECHES. you are what's wrong with America...too complacent with the status quo...anytime someone speaks of change you dismiss it because you are so bitter you do not believe that it is possible.
Do you honestly think that an Obama administration could be worse than the Bush years? God help us if McBush gets elected and continues Iraq War, Bush tax cuts, goes to war with Iran and god knows who else.
mrbronze013 3 years ago 2
If you think this country doesn't need a change you are beyond help, and represent everything wrong with America today.
longshot007 3 years ago
Obama is a great speaker and thats it !!! He can't and won't do 1/4 of what he promises. people are just that stupid to realize !!! God help us if he get elected." we will not just change this country, but were gonna change the world." Scares the hell out of me !!!
screaminrieman 3 years ago