Hotmail
Messenger
My MSN
MSN Directory
Unity is no easy destination for Democrats
‘Let’s get on board’
Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, said that everyone who had supported her had been asked to turn all their energies to helping Mr. Obama. “Hillary is 100 percent behind making sure that Barack gets elected president,” Mr. McAuliffe said. “We’re instructing everybody, ‘Let’s get on board, let’s win this election.’ ”
He said that most of Mrs. Clinton’s supporters were eager to help Mr. Obama defeat his Republican rival, Senator John McCain of Arizona, though he said he had encountered regular reminders of the bitterness from the Democratic primary fight.
“There are people, as you know, who are angry; we just are going to have to deal with that,” he said. “I’ve been on losing ends before. For many of these people the only remedy is time.”
In their conversations, aides to both senators said, discussion of whether she would be interested in — or whether he would offer — a vice-presidential slot has not come up as they have sought to unify the Democratic Party.
“It’s a separate issue,” Mr. Axelrod said of the running-mate topic. “She’s been good enough to give him the room that a nominee should have to make a decision.”
Although Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton have talked several times since she withdrew, Mr. Obama and Mr. Clinton have yet to talk. The relationship-repairing effort, aides said, is concentrating first on Mrs. Clinton.
Old habits die hard
Aides to both senators say hard feelings between the two camps are dissipating by the week — many people from both sides, in fact, were friends before and remain close — but some habits remain. In the primary, aides to Mrs. Clinton referred to their rival as B.H.O. — initials of Barack Hussein Obama, including his middle name, which has been a politically sensitive issue — while Mr. Obama’s team simply referred to him as B.O. The B.H.O. shorthand is frowned upon inside Mr. Obama’s campaign headquarters, a warning for any Clinton staff members coming aboard.
Mr. McAuliffe said the debt problem should not be a big issue as the campaign moved forward. “Listen, I’ve been helping the Clintons with debt for a long time,” he said. “It hasn’t bothered us before, and it doesn’t bother me now. We’re going to retire the debt in due course. I’m not concerned.”
But Mrs. Clinton’s advisers have told Mr. Obama that her ability to campaign on his behalf will be curtailed if she has to devote the summer to raising money on her own behalf.
Click for related content |
The question of how many of Mrs. Clinton’s former associates will end up working in Mr. Obama’s campaign is another source of tension. To date, there has been no large-scale effort to recruit Mrs. Clinton’s aides.
Part of this is because Mr. Obama’s campaign high command is already fully formed and because it is based in Chicago, meaning a relocation for most former Clinton workers. (Her headquarters was in suburban Washington.)
The hiring by Mr. Obama of Patti Solis Doyle, ousted as Mrs. Clinton’s campaign manager in February, to run the operation of Mr. Obama’s running mate was seen by Clinton allies as a snub and a signal that Mrs. Clinton was not in contention for the No. 2 position on the ticket. Mr. Obama’s advisers said that was not the intended message.
Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, said the campaign was taking names of Clinton staff members from Mrs. Clinton and was prepared to hire a number, particularly for contested states.
“They are getting us the names of people who are interested in working with us,” Mr. Plouffe said, “and we are working through that. They have a lot of talent.”
Michael Powell contributed reporting from Chicago.
This story, After Attacks, Delicate Talks for Democrats on a Path to a Unified Party, originally appeared in The New York Times.
|
|
- Discuss Story On Newsvine
- Rate Story:
View popularLowHigh - Instant Message
MORE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES |
 The New York Times Section Front |