Obama tells Clinton donors he gave toward her debt

WASHINGTON - Sen. Barack Obama told Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's top financial backers yesterday that he has personally donated $2,300 to her campaign and, more significantly, has asked his biggest donors to help pay off her more than $20 million debt.

Obama made the announcement at a meeting with Clinton donors who have been frustrated that the Democratic presidential candidate had not done more to help Clinton pay the bills, even as the donors are expected to help fund his campaign. The $2,300 is the most Obama can contribute under federal law.

He drew a standing ovation from the crowd of more than 200 at Washington's Mayflower Hotel when he said he would enlist his supporters to help pay off Clinton's debt, said Tom McMillen, a retired NBA player and former congressman from Maryland who attended. The meeting was closed to the media.

"It was really about unifying the party," McMillen said.

Clinton adviser Terry McAuliffe said Obama himself wrote a check to Clinton.

"When the two of them walked into the room, the room erupted," he said. "This campaign has ended. Hillary Clinton has said we've all got to get together."

McAuliffe said that after speaking, Clinton and Obama took questions ranging from helping with the debt to promoting a joint ticket.

The meeting was part of a two-day effort to show unity between the former rivals who competed fiercely for the Democratic nomination.

Clinton spoke to two trade groups earlier yesterday before she introduced Obama to her most loyal fundraisers.

"I am asking you to do everything you can to help elect Barack Obama," Clinton told the American Nurses Association, a 2.9-million-member group that had backed her candidacy. "I have debated him in more debates than I can remember, and I have seen his passion and his determination and his grit and his grace."

Clinton and Obama plan to appear together today, for the first time since the end of the primary, in Unity, N.H. - where each won 107 votes in the state's January primary. Clinton won New Hampshire in an upset that set the stage for their long campaign, and it is a critical battleground for the general election.

Obama said Wednesday that he thinks Clinton will be extraordinarily effective in speaking for his candidacy and that he would like to have her campaigning for him as much as she can. But the extent of her travel for him is not clear. Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said Wednesday that they had not scheduled any events after New Hampshire. "We don't have any specific knowledge of her schedule past Friday," Plouffe said.

Earlier yesterday, Obama campaigned in Pittsburgh on economic issues and won the endorsement of the AFL-CIO.

At a campaign forum at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, he traded ideas on energy, health care and schools with business, labor and academic leaders.

The group included the chief executive officers of General Motors and United States Steel Corp., along with the presidents of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Service Employees International Union.

Also on the panel was retired Gen. James Jones, a former NATO supreme allied commander who is close to presumptive Republican nominee John McCain but has been mentioned as a possible running mate for Obama.

Obama laid out his energy, health-care and education agenda, then asked each of 13 panelists for their thoughts.

"If you were setting federal policy, what do you think would be the most effective approach to ensure these exciting innovations are moving rapidly?" Obama asked Vinod Khosla after the venture capitalist talked about a "radical revolution" in renewable-energy technology.

Investment in university research, Khosla replied, along with stable policy and making people believe it can happen.

Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, told Obama: "The old idea that business and labor can't work together for the common good is outdated."

SEIU was one of seven unions that broke from the AFL-CIO in 2005. But both coalitions are backing Obama.

AFL-CIO president John Sweeney said, "We're proud to stand with Sen. Obama to help our nation chart a course that will improve life for generations of working people and our children."

The Republican National Committee said the endorsement contradicted Obama's stated objections to special interests.