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Hillary and Obama Together on Nightline Tonight

Update: I watched the segment, and like Nightline's Cynthia McFadden, thought they seemed free of tension and genuinely enjoying each other's company. Obama was very effusive in his praise for Hillary. At the rally, when they walked out together, he didn't just hug her, but kissed her on the cheek. He acknowledged that Hillary has made a big difference in how he is doing in Florida. She minced no words to her former supporters: "As hard as you worked for me, we need you now to work just as hard for Barack."

Very classy on both their parts. And 50,000 turned out on a Monday in Orlando to hear them. Let's just hope they all go to the polls.

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Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's first joint interview since the end of Hillary's campaign will air tonight on Nightline. The interview followed their joint campaign appearance in Florida today. [More...]

With two weeks remaining before Election Day, Obama told "Nightline" that he's "doing a little better" in Florida thanks to some help from his former rival.

"Hillary, I think, is as effective a spokeperson for the Democratic ideal, which is that is that everyone gets a fair shot. That's what she's been fighting for," Obama said. "There are some passionate supporters of hers that may still be trying to figure out who to vote for. She's got some great crossover appeal."

"She's been consistent in campaigning down here in Florida for us," Obama said. "I think it's why we're doing a little better here than we were a month ago."

...The last time Clinton and Obama appeared on stage together campaigning, in New Hampshire in June, the hard fought primary had just come to a close. Both Clinton and Obama said some of those wounds had healed.

"We've had a great campaign," Clinton said. "She's been doing great," Obama continued, "And I was just talking to her, I can't thank her enough. In places like Florida where she's got so much popularity, she can be a more effective messenger for us than just about anybody."

"We're going to win," Clinton said. "We are going to win. This campaign has so much momentum for all the right reasons. Not only are people concluding in their own self interests that they need Barack as our president, but external circumstances in the economy have focused attention on what's been going on for the last eight years."

Clinton said Obama "is offering is the kind of change that is needed. It's not just a campaign slogan. It is absolutely at the root of everything he stands for. The more I campaign across the country I am seeing people really make up their minds that they are really voting for themselves by voting for Obama."

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  • Display: Sort:
    It will never be enough (5.00 / 9) (#2)
    by dws3665 on Mon Oct 20, 2008 at 10:33:57 PM EST
    for the Josh Marshalls of the world and their CDS-infected followers.

    It's good to see Obama and Clinton rising (5.00 / 5) (#6)
    by Joelarama on Mon Oct 20, 2008 at 10:55:20 PM EST
    above pettiness and remembering what counts:  the people they seek to represent, and the issues they believe in.

    I only wish more of our old favorites in the Left Blogosphere had acted this way, or would at least feel some shame going forward as our primary candidates take the high road.

    Doesn't taking the high road (5.00 / 1) (#8)
    by Jeralyn on Mon Oct 20, 2008 at 11:22:33 PM EST
    mean not attacking people for their past behavior and moving forward? Why attack other bloggers now? Kind of an inconsistent comment. How about we all take the high road and concentrate on winning in two weeks?  

    Parent
    I think BTD demonstrated earlier tonight (5.00 / 1) (#9)
    by andgarden on Mon Oct 20, 2008 at 11:26:12 PM EST
    that the desire to move on is nonexistent in some quarters.

    Parent
    I read you because I find you credible. (5.00 / 1) (#13)
    by Joelarama on Mon Oct 20, 2008 at 11:57:53 PM EST
    I cannot say the same of some in the Left Blogosphere.  I'll gladly go into details, if you want, but I will leave it at that.

    This is about whether I can trust what I read, going forward.

    Parent

    When taking the high road... (5.00 / 8) (#14)
    by marian evans on Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 01:59:27 AM EST
    means condoning egregious sexism and even downright misogyny, then we need to re-think with whom we will travel.

    For many women, one of the earthquake moments of this election process has been the disconcerting realization that those we thought our colleagues - people whose opinion we had trusted - revealed attitudes to women which were not only mean-spirited, but actually vicious.

    This cannot be undone.

    So, no more forgive and forget. Women have already been forgotten too often ("We'll deal with your issues after we handle the important ones...just sit down and stop making a fuss"), and they have forgiven too much.

    Parent

    I'm so sorry (5.00 / 6) (#16)
    by NYShooter on Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 03:16:12 AM EST
    to have to agree with you. I was a college freshman when Jack was shot, and just graduated when Bobby (and MLK) were also. Was that when the Democratic Party began its slow metamorphosis into something I can't recognize?

    It wasn't just Hillary who was treated as a foreign microbe by The Party; the luke warm support Bill got, and not just during Monica either, makes their successes all the more remarkable. All during the time that Bill engineered the greatest turnaround imagineable from the disastrous Reagan years, the Party "leaders" kept their distance. Thinly veiled disappointment accompanied each success. Surrounded, and infiltrated by scoundrels and traitors (Panetta, Stephanopoulos, Reich, Lieberman , just to name a few) couldn't wait to "get out" to write their "tell all" books.

    The problem with Hillary?  She was too good, too smart, too well prepared, too motivated by all the right ideals, too stoic, too loyal, and too ready.  

    I wish, from the bottom of my heart that Obama fills the President's shoes like a Giant and leaves a wondrous legacy, but.........

    I hope Hillary never runs again. We don't deserve her.


    Parent

    You just broke my heart again (5.00 / 1) (#23)
    by sj on Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 10:14:06 AM EST
    The problem with Hillary?  She was too good, too smart, too well prepared, too motivated by all the right ideals, too stoic, too loyal, and too ready.  

    Just so.  

    And though you may be right that we don't deserve her, I sure hope we "get" her anyway.

    Parent

    I "got" her ... (5.00 / 1) (#28)
    by NYShooter on Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 12:02:11 PM EST
    right here in NY, where she belongs.....

    And I'm NOT letting her go!

    So there.

    Parent

    Because we dont' owe bloggers anything. (5.00 / 6) (#20)
    by ThatOneVoter on Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 07:20:47 AM EST
    Those who misbehaved so terribly in the primaries are shut out of my online world for the foreseeable future. I am not going to reward their misbehavior with hits.
    If they were elected officials, of course it would be in my best interests to forgive and forgive; for bloggers like Kos and JMM, it would be in the party's and my interest if they lose influence and are replaced by people who are honest and not sexist.

    Parent
    I still hear and read lots of Hillary bashing (none / 0) (#21)
    by Lil on Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 08:31:55 AM EST
    and as an Obama supporter now, that still sticks in my craw. (and Bill bashing too).

    Parent
    I'm a pro-Obama blogger who has been critical (none / 0) (#11)
    by democrattotheend on Mon Oct 20, 2008 at 11:42:35 PM EST
    of Hillary...at first, I did not believe she was sincere about wanting Obama to win. But she has really been going all out and I was really impressed with her when I saw her interviewed after the debate. She's earned back my respect and I hope she runs for president again in 2016. When I saw her the other night I was reminded why I had a tough time choosing between her and Obama in the first place.

    Parent
    I hesitate to ask if you thought (5.00 / 4) (#12)
    by oculus on Mon Oct 20, 2008 at 11:47:01 PM EST
    Hillary Clinton's speech endorsing Obama at the DNC wasn't "going all out" for him.  Also, whatever caused her to have to earn back your respect?

    Parent
    earned back your respect? (none / 0) (#24)
    by sj on Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 10:22:33 AM EST
    Are you kidding me?  You sound like those who sanctimoniously "forgive" her and never notice the mote is really in their own eye.

    I haven't always agreed with her, sometimes strenuously, but she ALWAYS deserved my respect.

    Parent

    Thanks (none / 0) (#1)
    by andgarden on Mon Oct 20, 2008 at 10:33:43 PM EST
    Just in time for me to tune in on the east.

    Not much of an interview (none / 0) (#3)
    by andgarden on Mon Oct 20, 2008 at 10:42:06 PM EST
    but they looked good together.

    Sigh.... (5.00 / 7) (#4)
    by Radiowalla on Mon Oct 20, 2008 at 10:47:34 PM EST
    I know (5.00 / 1) (#7)
    by andgarden on Mon Oct 20, 2008 at 10:58:57 PM EST
    I would have supported either regardless (4.80 / 5) (#5)
    by zvs888 on Mon Oct 20, 2008 at 10:48:58 PM EST
    But I really hope she is President some day.

    Parent
    She will be, trust her (5.00 / 2) (#10)
    by blogtopus on Mon Oct 20, 2008 at 11:31:02 PM EST
    It took a perfect storm of opposition and shenanigans (not personally Obama's fault) to take her out of this. We're not likely to see that kind of groundswell again in this lifetime.

    She'll be President sometime, count on it.

    Parent

    Comforting, but unlikely... (5.00 / 1) (#15)
    by marian evans on Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 02:38:39 AM EST
    because, to use your analogy, her vessel was deliberately sabotaged by her own party - it was holed, rammed and forced into port. That ship, unfortunately, has been denied the right to sail.

    "Any woman, just not that woman." Yeah, right.

    It will probably be the Reps who put the first woman US president into power. America, for all its amazing and ebullient individualism, is essentially a socially conservative country; and in such countries, women are placed in power by the conservatives (strange but true).

    Parent

    Perhaps... (5.00 / 1) (#17)
    by phatpay on Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 04:29:23 AM EST
    and it will be someone like Palin.
    Someone who is an effective communicator, but little more than a figurehead.

    I wish that I would have devoured the blogs during the Democratic primaries.
    When I did return to TL to check the pulse I, and I mean this seriously, was aghast at the division in the Dem party.
    I was originally an Edwards supporter. Mainly because he seemed focused on the plight of the poor.
    I was definitely in the "Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton = bad idea" camp.
    After she rallied in Appalachia, I really became impressed. I had begun to favor Obama, and lament the drawn out nominating process, but the sheer intestinal fortitude she displayed really was quite amazing.
    Especially as we learn just how culpable the Fourth Estate was in torpedoing her.
    I still wish she would have been given the Veep spot. Or at least been asked.
    She earned that.
    I do favor Obama over her for POTUS, but she is an incredible American.
    Her, on the Obama campaign trail, with conviction, is just the latest evidence.

    Parent

    "After she rallied in Appalachia" (5.00 / 1) (#29)
    by NYShooter on Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 12:27:47 PM EST
    Not that we New Yorkers have any more claim on her than anyone else, but if you haven't read the day by day history of her entrance into politics as a candidate in NY, do yourself a favor.

    Why she, or her campaign, didn't make her amazing courtship of the "Redder than Mississippi" NY upstate a major theme in the Primary is a mystery to me. Like Joe Frazier, she marched into the den of the most hostile environment you can imagine, and took them on.

    Not to belabor the point, but the sheer tenacity and guts it took to hold hundreds of Town Meetings in all 62 counties (61 hated her) and grind them down to, if not a love affair, certainly a grudging admiration.

    I particularly loved a quote from one of upstate's papers, where a ripe, red, true Hillary Hater, was asked asked his opinion of her towards the end of her first campaign. He said, "I never voted for a Democrat in my whole life, I still don't like her, but the lady sure showed she's got a set of ba**s, and yeah, I'm gonna vote for her."

    I gotta get a life......

    Parent

    You didn't miss much. (none / 0) (#18)
    by Fabian on Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 06:08:21 AM EST
    By not reading the left blogs during the primaries you missed mostly a lot of cult-like thinking.  There's just no other way to describe it.  Everything the opponent did was BAD.  Everything the preferred candidate was GOOD.  Plus the hyperbole, the taking quotes out of context, and most appalling, the accusations that supporters or candidates weren't "real Democrats" or even "traitors".

    This is the worst of the worst, to be sure, but these weren't isolated incidents.  It was a pervasive, persistent pattern of behavior.  I believe the most descriptive phrase was "We have become Freeper.".

    (That's about as good a description as I can give without starting an argument about who was worse.)

    Parent

    You left out (none / 0) (#22)
    by oldpro on Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 09:55:51 AM EST
    misogyny and racism and class warfare...

    Parent
    I was trying to be as broad (5.00 / 1) (#25)
    by Fabian on Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 10:32:57 AM EST
    and inclusive as I could.

    The minute we start with particulars, a flame war will ignite.

    Let's just say that there were many hostile blogging environments.  I think "hostile" is an accurate characterization.  Not exactly conducive to party building.

    Parent

    For of all sad words (none / 0) (#19)
    by LarryInNYC on Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 06:20:33 AM EST
    of tongue or pen,
    The saddest are these:
    `It might have been!`

    I do want her to run again! (none / 0) (#26)
    by sallywally on Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 10:46:39 AM EST
    But other than that, I agree with all you've said. You provided a wonderful summary of the DC "Village" and their stunning ignorance and narcissism - and the even more stunning brilliance and commitment to the Democratic ideal of the Clintons.

    Thanks for your post!

    Meant as a reply to NYShooter but (none / 0) (#27)
    by sallywally on Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 10:58:02 AM EST
    wow, what great comments by everyone. That's why I love this site. It has helped me immensely all through the primaries and now in the general.

    I look forward to seeing what everyone says after Obama is president. I do think there will be a lot of Repub litigation about the election and I await your lawyerly comments about that!

    I do miss some of the folks who have left this site. It is their choice, of course, but I miss them anyway.

    By the way, has anyone seen the articles about the Dem Sec of State's Web site being hacked? It's not just that, their phone and e-mail systems have been tied up with threats and verbal assaults - even death threats, by the way - and they got a package with white powder that had threats written all over it.

    Parent

    Thank you very much (none / 0) (#30)
    by NYShooter on Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 02:43:24 PM EST
    You might be interested in my post above #29.

    Parent