McAuliffe On Clinton-Obama Relationship: 'It's A Love Fest'
The Democratic primary battle is over, but nominee Barack Obama still has to undertake the awesome task of making nice with the Clinton family. That means it's time to turn to the rum-soaked mania of former Clinton campaign chair and Clinton family social interpreter Terry McAuliffe. McAuliffe spoke to Maggie Rodriguez of CBS' The Early Show this morning and related that Bill Clinton was fully behind Barack Obama and that ther had a "great conversation" and will do "whatever it takes" to get Obama elected because, after all, his "legacy" was at stake and the economy isn't strong enough to get enough money raised for a new Racially Intemperate Remarks Wing of the Clinton Library.
McAuliffe ended the segment by informing viewers that the Obama-Clinton relationship could best be described as a "love fest." Based upon McAuliffe's historical interpretations of reality, we can assume that by "love fest," he really means "brutal knife fight that has now entered it's seventeenth hour."
[UPDATE: Please note below. Terry Mac says, "Yes we can."
[WATCH.]
RODRIGUEZ: Joining us now from Washington is Hillary Clinton's former campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe. Hi, Terry.
McAULIFFE: Maggie, good morning.RODRIGUEZ: Good morning to you. So first, Barack Obama personally writes a check to Hillary Clinton to her help pay off her debt and now yesterday he calls Bill Clinton. It seems this nominee is having to work awfully hard to win the support of the Clintons.
McAULIFFE: I do want you to know Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton have both written checks to Barack Obama. Thursday night in Washington we brought all of our folks in who had raised Hillary 230 million. They had a great unity event Friday. Hillary and Barack up in New Hampshire. The president was out of the country. He got back, as I said, on Sunday. They're going to talk in the next 24 hours. They talked yesterday. Had a great conversation. Bill Clinton said he will do whatever it takes. He'll go 24/7 to help Senator Obama win this presidential election.
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advertisementRODRIGUEZ: For a campaign that he once called the biggest fairy tale he had ever seen. Can we really believe this now after so much bad blood, Terry?
McAULIFFE: Yes, we can. You've gotta remember, Maggie, this was a long--we've never had such a close primary contest. Both candidates gained about 18 million votes. As you know, it came right down to the end. Both of them winning states. It went all the way to June 3rd. You know what? It was a tough primary battle. Bill Clinton, yes, he's the former President of the United States. But, you know what, his wife was running for president. So of course there was a lot of intensity in that race. But you know what, if you know Bill Clinton, it doesn't matter. He is ready to get up the next day, dust himself off. He loves the Democratic party. And this is important, Maggie, for his legacy: all the things that he worked so hard for while he was president to create jobs, to get the debt down, to get goodwill throughout the world. George Bush has taken that back and taken us in a reverse direction. Barack Obama can go out and build upon the things that Bill Clinton did as President of the United States. So, it's not only good for the Democratic party and great for America, this is personally important to President Clinton to continue those legacy items that he had.
RODRIGUEZ: He's gonna do what he has to do.
McAULIFFE: He'll do whatever it takes. We're all there, one, big happy unified family. It is a love fest, Maggie.
RODRIGUEZ: I don't know about that. But, okay. Terry McAuliffe, thank you very much.
McAULIFFE: Thank you, Maggie.
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First Posted: 07- 1-08 12:45 PM | Updated: 07- 9-08 05:12 AM