BILLINGS, Mont. — Barack Obama, watching the Democratic National Convention on television Tuesday, praised New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “strong speech” and her call for party unity.
“She made the case for why we’re going to be unified in November and why we’re going to win this election. I thought she was outstanding,” said Obama, who watched the speech at the home of one of his field organizers.
The Illinois senator, who arrives in Denver this afternoon, spoke to Clinton by phone after her convention address and told her he was grateful for her support, according to campaign adviser Robert Gibbs. Obama also said he enjoyed her line: “No way. No How. No McCain.”
Obama also had a conversation with President Bill Clinton.
Obama accepts the Democratic nomination on Thursday after a campaign swing through battleground states and a lot of late nights working on his speech.
The presidential hopeful, who is scheduled to arrive at Denver’s Westin Hotel around 4 p.m., has been holed up in hotel rooms in Chicago, Kansas City, Mo., and Billings over the past few nights, working on what is likely the most important speech so far in his career.
He has tinkered with the speech in longhand with a pen and pad and is now editing on a computer. Although top strategist David Axelrod and speechwriter Jon Favreau have helped in the process, the speech is mostly his own, the campaign said.
On Tuesday, the day after his wife, Michelle, spoke to Democratic delegates, he told a group of employees and activists here at an American Airlines maintenance hangar that he “couldn’t be more proud” of her.
“It puts a little pressure on me,” he said about his own speech. But if he’s nervous, he’s not showing it.
In Wisconsin, he joked about wanting to become president so the Secret Service could protect his two daughters from teenage boys. In Davenport, Iowa, he called a woman’s husband from her cellphone — in the middle of a town-hall campaign event — to persuade the man to vote for him. He hasn’t veered from his daily gym workouts and has stayed on his message of economic populism. The notoriously healthy eater has also sampled a number of barbecue platters.
“He’s looking forward to getting to Denver,” said Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki, who said Obama will likely have a low-key evening after arriving in the Mile High City, spending time with his family.
The Illinois senator is expected to fine-tune his speech Thursday and walk through Invesco Field to get a feel for the venue.
Earlier in the day, Obama spoke to American Airlines workers, hundreds of whom are on the brink of losing their jobs.
“The airlines are getting clobbered. The truth is that the economy is not working for ordinary Americans,” he said. “And John McCain is not promising to do anything different than George Bush did.”
The Missouri event was the third of Obama’s four stops in battleground states leading into the convention.
He is expected to talk to veterans today in Montana. Although Big Sky country has historically backed Republican presidential candidates, Obama’s campaign sees an opening: The president is extremely unpopular, and Democrats have been elected to the U.S. Senate and have taken the governor’s mansion.
Karen E. Crummy: 303-954-1594 or kcrummy@denverpost.com
