Bill Clinton to Join Obama’s Campaign

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton, who bit the dust in the U.S. Democratic presidential nomination race, have set out to help the party’s presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama on his road to the Oval Office.

Following Hillary’s participation in a joint rally with Obama held in the small town of Unity, New Hampshire on June 27, Bill Clinton said on June 30 that he would make all-out efforts to ensure Obama wins the presidency.

“Obama called Clinton, and during a 20-minute telephone conversation, Obama asked the former president to campaign for him, and Clinton answered that he will do his utmost,” said Obama’s spokesman Robert Gibbs.

Clinton`s spokesman Matt McKenna also hinted that the former president will support Obama, saying, “The president believes that Senator Obama will bring the change America needs as our next president.”

During the nomination race, the relationship between the two was definitely strained. The former president made scathing remarks against Obama to the effect that a first-term senator is not qualified as a national leader. To this, Obama retorted, “I am not sure whom I am fighting against.”

American news outlets, including The Washington Times and The New York Times, devoted their pages to the news saying the silence, which has continued since June 3 when Obama clinched the Democratic candidacy, has finally been broken.

triplets@donga.com