US Election: Obama Asks Bill Clinton to Help With Fightback

Barack Obama today made a belated personal appeal to Bill Clinton for advice on how to fight back against a resurgent Republican presidential campaign.

The lunchtime meeting in New York between the two towering Democratic figures comes amid growing despair at Obama's slide in the polls over the last week. Democratic figures are openly expressing fears that Obama does not have a strategy to counter the rising appeal of John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin.

Although Clinton extravagantly praised Obama in his speech to the Democratic convention in Denver last month, the relationship between the two has remained strained from the bitter Democratic primary campaign against Hillary Clinton earlier this year.

The meeting, which took place at the headquarters of Clinton's foundation in Harlem, was their first face-to-face encounter since the primary season ended last June. The two men have spoken on the phone on only two occasions since Obama won the nomination.

In an attempt to smooth the way for the meeting, Obama said he saw parallels between his own campaign and Clinton's in 1992: a relatively unknown politician fighting the Republicans against a backdrop of an ailing economy.

"You know, I've got lunch with Bill Clinton, which I'm looking forward to," he told David Letterman on Wednesday night. "There's nobody smarter in politics and he is going to be, you know, he's going to be campaigning for us over the next eight weeks, which I'm thrilled by because, you know, the race that he ran in '92 is -- it was similar to what's taking place now."

Clinton extended the lunch offer to Obama about a week ago -- before Palin began to energise the Republican base -- after patiently waiting for months for the Democratic candidate to get in touch.

If they had met earlier, it would have been characterised as Obama meeting Clinton from a position of strength, but coming this week, it adds to the sense of Obama being on the defensive and needing help putting his campaign back on course.

Obama said Clinton had been successful in reaching out to people in 1992 on the economy and he would like to use him in that role in this campaign, telling people "why we need to change the economy in a fundamental way so it works for middle class families so that they can get ahead, so that they can send their kids to college, I think he can be a great advocate on behalf of the campaign."

Hillary Clinton has been actively campaigning for Obama in battle line states. However, she has drawn a line against making personal attacks on Palin, Clinton insiders said.

Clinton is happy to attack the Republicans over policy but not on personality, in part because she sees this as the role of the vice-presidential candidate, Joe Biden, but also because she thinks it is a strategic mistake to engage in personal criticism of Palin.

However, Clinton did add to the Democrats' defence of Obama who has been under attack for using the phrase "lipstick on a pig" to describe McCain's recycled policies. Republicans have accused Obama of insulting Palin.

Clinton dismissed the notion at a press conference today."Barack has made this clear," she said. "It was in no way meant as an affront."

While Bill Clinton will also go out on the trail for Obama, the election timetable is narrowing.

The former president has many commitments over the next few weeks, including his annual Global Initiative conference in New York later this month, which attracts leaders from the world to discuss

A new poll out today showed Obama's poll lead slipping in a trio of battleground states that will determine the outcome of the election: Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

A Quinnipiac University poll showed McCain pulling away in Florida, with a lead of 50% to Obama's 43%. The Republican was narrowing the gap in Pennsylvania, with Obama on 48% and McCain 45%. Obama maintained his lead in Ohio, 49% to McCain's 44%.

Officially, the Obama camp has tried to downplay the polls, saying they are not predictive of the outcome next November.

However, there were signs this week of a concerted effort to push back against Republican attacks. One of Obama's closest advisers, Valerie Jarrett, told the Wall Street Journal today that Obama had told her in a phone conversation that he was not going to let Palin hijack media attention any longer. Echoing the view reached by Hillary Clinton and other senior Democrats, he told Jarret he would desist from personal attacks on Palin and "stay focused on John McCain".

Obama's bad week became worse when the National Rifle Association stepped up its opposition to him. The association, which has millions of supporters in the US and has so far played little part in the campaign, sees Obama as hostile towards gun ownership.