Obama: Prime-time Bill Clinton
Posted: Friday, August 08, 2008 9:09 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
2008, Obama
OK, it looks that the only Clinton not speaking at the Democratic convention is Chelsea, although we bet that changes soon. Bill Clinton “was offered an invitation to speak on Aug. 27, three senior Democratic officials said, before the address by the party’s vice-presidential nominee. The Obama campaign extended the offer on Thursday to Mr. Clinton, who accepted it.”
Per NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Obama campaign officials insist it was never in doubt that Bill Clinton would speak, but it was only after Obama reached out and called the former president himself that a prime-time speech for Clinton was confirmed.
The Washington Post: "The Obama and Clinton camps said this week that they agree on a central point: They would like to avoid an embarrassing display of discord from Clinton's most ardent backers when the national convention begins in just over two weeks. Conversations about how to achieve that have increasingly focused on the question of whether Clinton's name will be offered in a roll-call vote by delegates to determine the nominee, even though she has said she is not challenging Obama's claim as the party's standard-bearer."
With Obama headed to Hawaii, the AP looks at how island life shaped the Illinois senator.
Chuck Schumer added to the voices of Democrats critical of Obama's response to the Paris Hilton-Britney Spears ad. "I thought the Britney Spears commercial was powerful," Schumer told the Politico... "They're trying to say, 'He's not one of us,'" Schumer said. "I would answer back hard. What do you mean he's not one of us? It's John McCain who wears $500 shoes, has six houses and comes from one of the richest families in his state." He added, "When they say, 'He's not one of us,' you don't say, 'Here's our plan on health care.'"
"With the existing 33,000 square feet on the 11th floor of a Chicago office building starting to feel like a crowded sweatshop, the campaign headquarters for Sen. Barack Obama is expanding," the Chicago Tribune reports. "On Thursday, the Democratic presidential campaign started moving into an additional 12,000 square feet of space in the same building."
