Politics
Obama and the Clintons: Deepening political & policy ties
Democrats say the overt signs of unity between the Clintons and Obama put the president at a distinct advantage over likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor must soothe the wounds from his GOP primary fight and figure out whether the last Republican president, George W. Bush, will have a role in the 2012 race.
Discussions are under way at Romney’s Boston headquarters about the degree to which Bush will participate, if at all, in the general election. Many Republicans are reluctant to Bush, who left office deeply unpopular, especially as the Obama campaign seeks to tie Romney to Bush’s economic and foreign policy positions.
While Obama and the Clintons are rarely described as friends, people close to them say the relationship has warmed significantly since the 2008 nomination contest. In that race, the former president slammed Obama’s candidacy as a “fairy tale” while Obama sarcastically told Hillary Clinton that she was “likable enough.”
The thaw started as a matter of political necessity: Their party was desperate to retake the White House after eight years of Republican rule. Hillary Clinton offered Obama a gracious endorsement, both Clintons campaigned for Obama, and the newly elected president picked his former rival to be America’s chief diplomat.
It took longer for Obama’s relationship with Bill Clinton to soften as the two men found common ground in the pressures of the presidency.
“There are not very many people who understand what it’s like to live in the White House and bear those burdens,” said Karen Finney, a Democratic strategist who worked in the Clinton White House. “Bill and Hillary Clinton are two of those people.”
When Obama’s health care bill was in trouble, he and his staff, which included several veterans of the Clinton White House, called on the former president for help. In late 2009 and early 2010, Bill Clinton went to Capitol Hill to rally support and worked the phones with wary Democratic lawmakers.
