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Raucous: Clinton, Obama vow unity at annual party dinner
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VIDEO: Sen. Barack Obama in Charlotte on Friday, May 2, 2008
Published: May 3, 2008
RALEIGH - RALEIGH - Wrapping up a day of campaigning in North Carolina, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both said last night that Democrats would be united in the general election.
But four days before North Carolina's crucial primary on Tuesday, they each laid out their closing arguments to North Carolina Democrats about why they would be the best presidential nominee, and they continued to spar over a proposal to suspend the gas tax during the summer.
Their comments came during the state Democratic Party's annual dinner. Both candidates expressed strong statements of unity once the party has decided on a presidential nominee. As the nomination battle drags on, North Carolina's primary is expected to be critical.
"We all know that what unites us as Democrats is so much greater than the differences, and the stakes are too high for us not to pull together as one team," Clinton said. "I will tell you this: If Sen. Obama is the nominee, you better believe I'll work my heart out for him. And if I'm the nominee, I know Sen. Obama will do the very same for me."
Obama made a similar promise to support Clinton if she wins the nomination.
"Although we are campaigning vigorously and we have serious differences in both policy and approach, one thing I can say is that our differences pale in comparison to our differences with the other party," Obama said.
Despite those expressions of unity in the general election, Obama and Clinton also continued a spat that emerged this week over the gas tax. Clinton supports a gas-tax holiday during the summer; Obama opposes it. It is one of the few clear policy differences between the two.
Clinton said last night that suspending the tax temporarily would help "everyone who takes their children to school or their parents to the doctor." And she repeated her proposal to raise taxes on oil companies as a way to make up the lost revenue from the gas-tax suspension.
But Obama said that the idea is a short-term "gimmick" that wouldn't have much impact on consumers. Many energy and economic experts have criticized the idea for the same reasons that Obama opposes it.
"I don't want to look back 20 years from now and see that somebody's offered a gas-tax holiday and gas is $20 a gallon," Obama said.
Obama suggested long-term ideas, such as investing in alternative energy and higher fuel-efficiency standards. Clinton also supports those ideas.
Beyond the debate over the gas tax, Clinton's speech was heavier on policy details, while Obama talked more about lofty ideas such as changing the political culture in Washington.
Obama echoed many of the same policy themes as Clinton's, but focused on his goals of unity and change. Both candidates harshly criticized President Bush, and both repeated their pledges to withdraw troops from Iraq. And both candidates praised John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator and former presidential candidate.
Obama and Clinton have sought Edwards' endorsement, but he has mostly stayed out of the race. His wife, Elizabeth, has praised Clinton's health- care plan as being superior to Obama's.
Last night's dinner -- an annual fundraiser known as the Jefferson-Jackson dinner -- illustrated in the starkest possible terms the uniqueness of this year's presidential race for the state of North Carolina. Never before has the state's primary played such a pivotal role in the presidential nomination.
In past years, the party's Jefferson-Jackson dinners have been relatively small-time affairs, attracting party officials and politicians but few others.
Not this year.
The state party said it was expecting 5,000 people to attend the dinner, which was held in an arena on the state fairgrounds. And the party was expecting 150 members of the state and national media to cover the dinner.
The Obama and Clinton campaigns were given 1,000 tickets apiece, and they brought huge, raucous crowds of supporters, waving signs and drowning each other out with chants of "O! BA! MA!" and "HILL! A! RY!"
All of the state's prominent Democrats were in attendance, including all of the major candidates running for state office.
The major Democrats running for governor and U.S. Senate gave speeches, as did Gov. Mike Easley, who is ending his second term as governor and cannot run again because of consecutive term limits. Easley, who endorsed Clinton earlier this week, was booed several times by the Obama assemblage in the crowd.
■ James Romoser can be reached at 919-210-6794 or at jromoser@wsjournal.com.
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