Clinton forcefully endorses Obama

Source: China Daily/Agencies | 08-30-2008 10:55

DENVER - Former President Clinton has pledged to cheering Democratic National Convention delegates to strongly support Barack Obama's campaign for the White House.

Former US President Bill Clinton acknowledges the audience  as he arrives onstage at the 2008 Democratic National  Convention in Denver, Colorado, August 27, 2008. Democrats  nominated Senator Barack Obama on Wednesday as their  presidential candidate in a historic first for a black American,  sending him into battle against Republican John McCain.  [Agencies]

Clinton told the convention Wednesday night that Obama "has a remarkable ability to inspire people." The former president's speech had been eagerly awaited by Democrats in view of his own past criticism of Obama and his ambivalence about the Illinois senator.

Clinton said that Obama had "hit one out of the ballpark" when he chose Sen. Joseph Biden to run with him.

He noted that Hillary Rodham Clinton had told the convention Tuesday that she would do everything possible to get Obama elected. Then, Clinton said: "That makes two of us."

Clinton was trying to roll back a line of attack made by him and his wife in their primary battle, and taken up now by John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. McCain unloaded a new TV ad that contended Obama is "dangerously unprepared" for the White House.

Another McCain ad appropriated one of Hillary Rodham Clinton's own attack spots on Obama, one that showed sleeping children and a 3 a.m. phone call into the White House portending a crisis. It suggests Obama doesn't have the experience to rise to it.

But Clinton aides said that in his prime-time speech the former president would argue forcefully that Obama is prepared for the domestic, foreign and national security challenges that will arise in the coming years.