Bill Clinton Says He’s Ready to Campaign for Obama
ABC News’ Kate McCarthy and Nitya Venkataraman Report:
Former President Bill Clinton says he’s ready to hit the campaign trail for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama “whenever he asks”.
“I just told him that whenever he wanted to do it, I was ready,” Clinton told a room full of reporters, following a news conference at his foundation’s Manhattan headquarters about new agreements that will lower the price of malaria medication. “It’s basically on their timetable. He’s got a lot of things to do between now and the convention of which this is simply one. So, I’ll do whatever I’m asked to do, whenever I can do it.”
And speaking of the Democratic convention in Denver, Clinton says he’s given “no thought” to whether or not he’d like to headline as one of the speakers. The relationship between the Obama campaign and the presidential campaign of the former president’s wife New York Sen. Hillary Clinton has only recently begun to heal itself following a hotly-contested battle for the Democratic nomination that ended on June 7 when Sen. Clinton conceded the nomination to Obama.
Clinton also said he hasn’t spoken to Rev. Jesse Jackson since his “hot mic” incident but expressed sympathy for an off-air moment caught on tape and commended Jackson for his quick apology.
“If all of us lived on live mics then 100 percent of us in this room would be embarrassed from time to time. He’s a good man and he did what he could to make it right,” Clinton said, adding “I think Senator Obama accepted his apology. I think it’s over.”