DENVER – Bill Clinton was front and center for his wife’s speech last night, and he’s addressing the convention floor himself tonight – but he is expected to be out of Denver before Barack Obama gives his acceptance speech tomorrow.
Clinton is expected to leave Denver tomorrow, sources said.
The former president has business with his foundation to attend to, the sources said. But given the tenor of the convention so far – the tensions between the Obama and Clinton supporters has overshadowed everything – some were surprised by it.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to be at the speech.
Bill Clinton’s decision to skip Obama’s speech follows an off-the-cuff remark yesterday that some critics took as a diss of Obama.
“Suppose you’re a voter, and you’ve got candidate X and candidate Y,” Clinton told a roomful of foreign dignitaries gathered in Denver. “Candidate X agrees with you on everything, but you don’t think that candidate can deliver on anything at all.
“Candidate Y you agree with on about half the issues, but he can deliver. Which candidate are you going to vote for?” Clinton asked, in a forum reported on by congressional newspaper The Hill.
It belatedly dawned on Clinton that his remarks might be ill-conceived – and that some might view them as a slap at Obama.
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“This has nothing to do with what’s going on now,” he added after a momentary pause.
But the lapse only added to the tension among delegates and campaign staffers trying to minimize the discord between Hillary Clinton’s and Obama’s supporters in Denver.
The remarks also reinvigorated a longstanding worry among some Democrats about Bill’s ability to wholeheartedly endorse the party’s nominee.
The ex-president’s spokesman, Matt McKenna, said it was “unfortunate that some in the media feel the need to twist every statement to fit a manufactured storyline.”
“This was a serious discussion about solving some of the world’s most serious problems, not party politics. Anyone who doubts President Clinton’s commitment to electing Barack Obama should tune in [tonight],” he said.
Three weeks ago, Clinton infuriated the Obama camp when he dodged a question during an ABC News interview about Obama’s readiness to be commander-in-chief.