Clintons to Stump for Obama

With the exception of a handful of speeches and isolated fundraising events, Bill and Hillary Clinton had not really lived up to their vow that they made at the Democratic National Convention that they would do anything in their power to get Barack Obama elected president of the United States.

But now, that's all changing. Both Clintons are meeting with Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, for a rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania--a working class town where both Hillary and Biden have roots--to campaign for their former nemesis.

After the rally, the Clintons will divide and conquer, following separate itineraries through a series of battleground states. According to the Associated Press, they will also campaign for Democratic House and Senate candidates who are in tight races across the country.

After the Scranton rally, Bill will head to Richmond and Roanoke, Virginia--a state with 13 electoral votes that have not gone for a Democrat since Lyndon Johnson in 1964 that Obama hopes to pick up. Bill has also planned events in two battleground states that he won in 1992 and 1996, Ohio and Nevada.

Hillary will remain in Pennsylvania for the next few days, holding a fundraiser for Obama tonight outside of Philadelphia, and then will hold a rally for him Monday in Montgomery County, a Philadelphia suburb loaded with swing voters.

Hillary beat Obama by about nine points in the Pennsylvania primary in April, and the Obama campaign believes that she can be the most useful there, especially among those white working class voters that propelled her to victory in the state.

John McCain is still making a strong play for the state and its 21 electoral votes, even though his poll numbers do not look good at all. In fact, the last five polls taken in the state have him down by double digits, including a poll from Strategic Vision, which has historically leaned heavily towards Republican candidates. Maybe their internals look better?

In addition to Pennsylvania, Hillary has also planned return visits to Ohio and Florida in the next few days. It has also been reported that she has scheduled a trip to Omaha, Nebraska in an attempt to pick up that one electoral vote from Nebraska's second congressional district that seems to be in play. She also plans to make a stop in Minnesota.

On Friday, she traveled to Arkansas--that's right, Arkansas--which of course is Bill's home state and where she served 12 years as first lady, in hopes of making it more competitive for Obama. Fat chance.

She also might be making a swing through the western battleground states such as New Mexico, Colorado, and Nevada to shore up support for Obama with the Latino vote that so favored her in the primaries.

Hillary did a series of radio interviews this week in North Carolina, usually a reliable red state but one that has turned into a battleground this presidential election. She also spoke to a Hispanic station in Florida and launched a women's canvass in Wisconsin Saturday by phone.

She has made the claim that we need a Democrat in the White House during these hard economic times and this financial crisis. During the primaries, Clinton was seen as more fit to deal with economy than Obama.

So now that Bill and Hill are about to go all out for Obama in the home stretch, they can say that they lived up to their promise. If Obama loses this year, there is little doubt that Hillary will get the Democratic nomination in 2012, and there will not be as much bad blood with her and Obama supporters because she can say that she did everything she could to get him elected.

Now, I have no doubt that Hillary wants Obama to win the election this year. Others have believe that she secretly hopes Obama loses this year so she can have another go at the presidency in 2012. I believe that she is legitimately rooting for him to win this year and she's campaigning for him for unselfish reasons. But I also think she realizes that it's always good to have a safety net if he does lose this time around.