Barack Obama Makes Surprise Appearance After Joe Biden DNC Speech
Biden Praises First Black Major Party Presidential Candidate; Attacks McCain
Clinton-Obama Primary Wounds
While Bill Clinton is the only Democrat elected to a second term in the White House since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, received much criticism from his own party during the extended primary battle. He created an uproar after a South Carolina Democratic primary that prompted anger among some in the African-American community.
After Obama defeated his wife there, the former president seemed to downplay the significance of the victory by noting Jesse Jackson had won South Carolina in 1984 and 1988, even though Jackson did not go on to win the overall contest -- a comparison some observers found offensive.
The controversy later brought an apology from Hillary Clinton, who told reporters, "You know, I am sorry if anyone was offended. It was certainly not meant in any way to be offensive."
"I am not a racist," Bill Clinton told ABC News' Kate Snow earlier this summer . "I've never made a racist comment and I never attacked him [Obama] personally."
When asked whether he thought Obama was ready to be president, the former president offered only a tepid answer.
"You could say that no one's ever really prepared to be president," he said.
Some African-American Democrats said going into Wednesday's speech that kind of endorsement wasn't going to be enough.
Democratic convention volunteer Christine Easterling, 59, of Silver Spring, Md., a retired educator, said Clinton has some work to do to show he supports Obama.
"His comments were racist," she said. "But if he knew how to make it bad, then he knows how to make it right again."
Outside the convention hall today, volunteering with his wife for the convention's "green team," Spence Havlick, 73, a University of Colorado city planning and architecture professor, said he wishes Clinton would go back to playing the role of elder statesman.
"We've always been very impressed with him, and I just wish he would continue to be an elder statesman, like a younger Jimmy Carter," he said.
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