Barack Obama finally makes his peace with Bill Clinton

Telegraph 07/18/2010 15:30

President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton

With his approval ratings plummeting and his party facing a pummeling in crucial elections, President Barack Obama has turned for salvation to the man who was until recently his harshest Democratic critic - Bill Clinton.

Mr Obama is forging a fragile partnership with his bitter adversary from the 2008 presidential race in the hope of dragging his presidency out of the doldrums and salvaging Democratic prospects in a bleak campaign season.

With his time in the White House linked for many Americans to an era of economic boom, Mr Clinton will be dispatched to campaign in key states where Democratic candidates regard Mr Obama as a political liability.

A senior Clinton advisor recently sat down with Obama aides to map out the strategy to support "endangered" Democratic candidates as the party battles to retain its majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate in November.

It is a dramatic transformation from the hostilities of 2008 when Mr Clinton was often reduced to red-faced rants as an unbridled cheerleader for his wife Hillary in her acrimonious battle with Mr Obama for the Democratic nomination.

As The Sunday Telegraph revealed the former president was so furious with the way that he was portrayed by the rival camp, particularly his belief that that they had portrayed him as racist, that he told friends that Mr Obama could "kiss my ass" in return for his support.

Mr Obama for his part ran his campaign against Mrs Clinton on the mantra that he was overturning "politics as usual" – a barely-veiled dig at the Clintonian style of operations.