Palin pick highlights Clinton's importance to Obama

0 Comments | USA TODAY, September, 2008 | by DeWayne Wickham

Just when it seemed Hillary Clinton had been pushed to the back bench of the presidential campaign, she's being asked to step up her appearances on behalf of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama. The request came in the wake of presidential candidate John McCain's announcement Friday that he had chosen Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate on the GOP ticket.

The Obama campaign is now talking to Clinton about how often she can stump for Obama, who beat her in a bruising fight for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination and then ignored the pleas of her supporters to pick the senator of New York as his running mate. Instead, Obama chose Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, a foreign policy expert who helps Obama fend off charges that he has little expertise in...