Mar 8, 2008 10:00 am US/Eastern
Bill Clinton Calls Dream Ticket 'Unstoppable'
HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) ―
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday again raised the possibility that she might run with rival Sen. Barack Obama on the same Democratic presidential ticket as her husband, Bill Clinton, called a Clinton-Obama "unstoppable."
Speaking to voters in Mississippi, where Sen. Barack Obama is expected to do well in next week's primary, Clinton said, "I've had people say, 'Well I wish I could vote for both of you. Well, that might be possible some day. But first I need your vote on Tuesday."
It is the second time this week that she has hinted at a joint ticket with the Illinois senator; who has not ruled it out but says it is premature to be having those discussions. Bill Clinton said the fact that his wife appealed to rural voters, while Obama appealed to urban voters would make the ticket "unstoppable."
The town hall meeting at a train depot in Hattiesburg was Clinton's second appearance in Mississippi, where 33 delegates will be allocated in its Democratic presidential primary Tuesday.
Clinton has already sought to lower expectations for the contest in this state where Obama is expected to do well, largely because of his increasing appeal among black voters.
Mississippi's population is 37 percent black.
"I know that I may have an uphill battle here in the state, I appreciate that," Clinton said.
But even if she does not win the state, Clinton is trying to collect as many delegates as she can now that the race has turned into a numbers game; she slightly narrowed the gap with Obama this week when she won three primaries in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island.
Perhaps mindful that her audiences in Mississippi might view Obama favorably, Clinton has leaned more towards criticizing the Bush administration and has mostly refrained from direct attacks on her opponent.
She told the Mississippi audience that the Labor Department's report on Friday showing a loss of 63,000 jobs nationwide in February is an alarming sign of economic troubles.
"The economic policies of the Bush administration are failures. People are out of work, and the work they have doesn't pay what it used to pay," Clinton said.
The Labor Department's report also indicated that the nation's unemployment rate fell to 4.8 percent as hundreds of thousands of people gave up looking for jobs. The jobless rate was 4.9 percent in January.
Job losses were widespread: in construction, manufacturing, retailing, financial services and a variety of professional and business services. Those losses swamped gains elsewhere, including education and health care, leisure and hospitality and the government.
Clinton, who supported the bipartisan federal economic stimulus plan, has said the plan's immediate tax rebates are not enough to avoid a downturn. Among other things, she proposes extending unemployment insurance and investing in so-called "green collar jobs."
After her Mississippi event Friday, Clinton was headed to Wyoming to campaign ahead of its Saturday caucus, another state that her campaign has already said is likely to favor Obama.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
