Obama Meets Briefly With Clinton
WASHINGTON _ Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton had a first, brief face-to-face conversation Wednesday after his historic victory, an exchange that left Obama optimistic about rebuilding party unity even though Clinton so far refuses to drop out.
Obama also announced that he’s picked a three-member vice presidential search committee _ a seeming attempt to tamp down growing talk by Clinton supporters that he should put her on the ticket.
Clinton and Obama ran into each other backstage at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference here, which they addressed just minutes apart Wednesday morning. But Obama’s comments left open the question of just how quickly Clinton might concede, as aides say she will need at least a few days to sort out her next move.
“We’re going to be having a conversation in coming weeks. And I’m very confident how unified the Democratic Party’s going to be to win in November,” Obama told reporters as he left the Senate.
He dismissed a question about Clinton’s refusal to concede after the final two primaries Tuesday night by saying she was “understandably focused on her supporters.”
But already Clinton is coming under increased pressure from at least one of her closest supporters to drop out.
“There’s no bargaining,” Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said Wednesday on NY1 news in New York. “You don’t bargain with the presidential nominee. Even if you’re Hillary Clinton, and you have 18 million votes, you don’t bargain.”
Obama has had little time to celebrate his achievement of late Tuesday night _ becoming the first African-American candidate to lead his party’s fight for the White House.
Concession from Clinton or no, Obama moved quickly Wednesday into general-election mode, tapping a three-person team including Caroline Kennedy to lead his search for a running mate.
Campaign officials said Kennedy, who is the daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, as well as former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder and longtime Washington insider Jim Johnson, have already begun compiling information on potential running mates.
Clinton’s supporters also stepped up talk about Clinton as a vice presidential pick.
“I think a lot of her supporters would like to see her on the ticket,” said Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe.
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said, “There is no deal in the works.”
Two prominent Clinton supporters _ Black Entertainment Television founder Bob Johnson and ex-Clinton aide Lanny Davis _ said they are launching efforts to persuade Obama to pick Clinton for his ticket, believing they would be an unstoppable tandem against Republican John McCain.
Obama picked up fresh support Wednesday from fellow Democrats eager for party unity after a bruising battle for the presidential nomination, and his historic achievement even drew Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s attention.
“The United States of America is an extraordinary country. It is a country that has overcome many, many, now years, decades, actually a couple of centuries, of trying to make good on its principles,” said Rice, the first female black secretary of state in history, serving in a Republican administration.
“And I think what we are seeing is an extraordinary expression of the fact that `We the people’ is beginning to mean all of us.”
Obama himself has repeatedly offered praise for his fallen rival, in hopes of easing the way for Clinton to make a speedy exit from the race and help him win over her supporters _ particularly women, some of whom remain angry that Clinton failed to reach the nomination.
At the conference, Obama criticized McCain for supporting a “plan for staying, not a plan for victory” in Iraq.
“Keeping all of our troops tied down indefinitely in Iraq is not the way to weaken Iran; it is precisely what strengthened it,” he said.
Obama expressed his strong support for Israel, because he has had trouble winning the support of some Jewish voters who question his commitment to Israel.
Obama sought to address those concerns head-on, though he made a joke that fell somewhat flat in the crowded ballroom. He spoke of a virulent e-mail campaign circulating rumors that he is a Muslim _ he’s not _ and told the crowd to disregard them.
“They’re filled with tall tales and dire warnings for a certain candidate for president. Let me know if you see this guy Barack Obama, because he sounds pretty scary,” Obama said, referring to the caricatured Obama of the e-mails.
He pledged that, as president, the bond between the United States and Israel would be “unbreakable today, unbreakable tomorrow, unbreakable forever.”
McCain also has criticized Obama for saying he’d meet “without preconditions” with Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad _ but Obama sought to clarify that stance Wednesday, saying he would be willing to meet with “appropriate” Iranian leaders at the time and place of his choosing, if he believed it would advance American national security interests.
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