Is It Hearts and Flowers Yet?

JimmyHavok.

Posted to Politics on Wed Aug 13, 2008 at 07:27:28 PM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

Ever since Hillary Clinton dropped out of the Democratic nomination race, there have been rumors of hard feelings between the Clinton camp and the Obama camp. Hillary hasn't done any active campaigning for Obama since she suspended her own campaign, and the rumors have also been fueled by the low profile Bill has taken, including a very terse semi-endorsement in June. Last Tuesday, in a typically ambiguous interview with ABC's Kate Snow, President Clinton not only damned Obama with faint praise ("I never said he wasn't qualified. The constitution sets qualification for the president.") but followed it with some more positive comments ("He clearly can inspire and motivate people and energise them, which is a very important part of being president. And he's smart as a whip so there's nothing he can't learn.")

Over the past couple of days, the faint praise has gotten more attention from the press than the more positive comments. YouTube footage of raucous crowd at one of Hillary Clinton's appearances fed the frenzy even more, with some commentators speculating about whether she would withdraw her name from the ballot or not.

Eventually Obama was forced to try to calm the waters, calling Bill Clinton "very gracious" and coming close to accusing interviewer Kate Snow of ginning the whole thing up. Then, in a surprise move late on Thursday, Obama invited Bill Clinton to be a keynote speaker at the convention, scheduled just before the vice presidential nominee's speech. Clinton's acceptance was quick.

It's still too early to see if this move has patched up the bad blood between the two camps. Will the Hillary supporters who pledged to vote Republican out of spite be mollified? Will Bill turn his silver tongue to the service of another? Will this bring more of Jim Webb's Fightin' Appalachians into the voting booth for Obama?