WASHINGTON (AP) Ñ Hillary Rodham Clinton lauded Barack Obama for "his grit and his grace" as she resumed public and private campaigning Thursday to support the candidate who dashed her hopes of winning the Democratic presidential nomination.
The New York senator spoke to two trade groups before an evening meeting to introduce Obama to her most loyal fundraisers, while behind the scenes the two sides are working out details over the extent of her involvement with Obama's campaign going forward.
"I am asking you to do everything you can to help elect Barack Obama," Clinton told the American Nurses Association, a 2.9-million member group that backed her candidacy. "I have debated him in more debates than I can remember and I have seen his passion and his determination and his grit and his grace. In his own life he has lived the American dream."
Clinton and Obama plan to appear together for the first time since the end of the primary on Friday in symbolic Unity, N.H. Ñ where each got 107 votes in the state's January primary. Clinton won New Hampshire in an upset that set the stage for their long campaign, and it is now a critical battleground for the general election.
Obama told reporters Wednesday that he thinks she'll be extraordinarily effective in speaking for his candidacy and he'd like to have her campaigning for him as much as she can. "I think we can send Senator Clinton anywhere and she'll be effective," Obama said.
But the extent of her travel for Obama is not clear. Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said Wednesday that they have not scheduled any events after New Hampshire. "We don't have any specific knowledge of her schedule past Friday," Plouffe said.
Three Clinton confidants Ñ Cheryl Mills, Minyon Moore and Robert Barnett Ñ are in talks with Obama's campaign to work out details of her future involvement, including travel, her role at the national convention and resolution of her more than $20 million debt. Part of their argument is that Clinton can spend more time helping Obama if she isn't working to pay off her debts.
Some Clinton supporters, including some of those attending Thursday's fundraiser meeting, remain frustrated that Obama is not doing more to help with her debt while they are raising even more money for him. In response, the Illinois senator has asked five of his top donors to coordinate an effort to do so.
"As those of you who were on the call yesterday heard, Barack has asked each of us to collect five or six checks to help Senator Clinton repay the people who provided goods and services to her campaign," finance chair Penny Pritzker said Wednesday in an e-mail to Obama's national finance committee. "He made this request in the spirit of party unity. Senator Clinton has promised to do everything she can to help us beat John McCain."
"We recognize that this has been a long and, at times, hotly contested campaign," the e-mail said, with a "Clinton for President Debt Retirement" donor form attached. "But in the same way Senator Clinton has asked her supporters to move beyond the primary campaign, Barack has asked us to help in this effort to defray her debt. As he said on the call, `We are all in this together.'"
Clinton's debt includes $12 million of her own money. She has said she is not asking for help to pay back that portion. Obama told reporters Wednesday he wouldn't send an e-mail asking his small-dollar donors to donate to Clinton because "their budgets are tighter" and they probably couldn't make much of a dent.
Clinton told the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Thursday that every issue the group is fighting for is at risk in the campaign between Obama and Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain
"We have to be determined to chart a new course and we cannot do that without electing Senator Obama our president," she said. "So that is what I'm going to be working for, that is what I'm going to be fighting for."