Donors Asked To Give for Two

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Obama, Clinton Show Unity Again in New York

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama appeared on-stage with former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton again Thursday morning at a fundraiser in New York.

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"It's a challenge," said James Hudson, a Washington lawyer and Obama fundraiser who said he's already asking his friends and colleagues to write checks to Obama's Victory Fund. "Now you have to make two asks instead of one. In my mind, the primary goal here should be to raise money for Barack's campaign."

Mark Gilbert, a financier and Obama supporter who has been raising money in Florida and Utah, agreed that the request to help Clinton has been a challenge.

"What's a good way to put this? There's a feeling that the money she spent at the end may not have needed to have been spent," he said. "You want to help because it's important to Senator Obama. The flip side is, you don't want to take money away from what's needed in November, which is the more important goal."

Clinton supporters who have joined Obama's effort said his work to help retire Clinton's debt is an important olive branch and will more than offset any burden it places on Obama's fundraising team.

Richard L. Shiffrin, a Philadelphia lawyer who backed Clinton but has now committed to helping Obama, said he has been closely monitoring the debt-retirement effort.

"They have made a bunch of promises, which I have no reason to believe they won't fulfill, but you want to see results," he said.

Lindsay Gardner, a partner with MediaTech Capital Partners who is raising money for Obama, said he thinks the widespread talk of friction between Obama and Clinton fundraisers has been overstated.

"I think they represent a minority, but they're getting disproportionate attention," Gardner said. "The view among the people who really are pivotal in the campaign is that it's slowly but surely working itself out."

Staff writer Perry Bacon Jr. and researcher Alice Crites contributed to this report.