Bill Clinton at last talks with Obama

Sen. Barack Obama and former President Clinton shared a 20-minute telephone conversation Monday, their first talk since the combative Democratic presidential-primary season ended after Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton dropped out of the race last month.

"Senator Obama asked him to campaign with and for him in the fall," said Robert Gibbs, Obama's communications director.

While the two senators have spoken several times and appeared publicly together Friday at a rally in Unity, N.H., Obama had yet to clear the air with the former president after tense public exchanges throughout the primary campaign. Many of those exchanges between the two men and their surrogates were rooted in race, others in the record of the Clinton administration.

Obama has told advisers he is eager to bury any animosity and seek advice from Clinton. He is expected to have dinner or a meeting with him, most likely on the former president's turf, aides said, though nothing has been scheduled. On Monday, they also discussed making a public appearance together in July.

The call was announced in separate statements issued by the offices of Obama and Clinton.

"President Clinton continues to be impressed by Senator Obama and the campaign he has run," said Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna, "and looks forward to campaigning for and with him in the months to come."

Bill Clinton was in Europe last week and did not attend Friday's rally with his wife and Obama. Obama said it was appropriate he appear alone with his former rival since they waged the hard-fought race.

Obama rebukes Clark, defends patriotism

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — Sen. Barack Obama on Monday rejected the comments from a leading Democrat and campaign military adviser who diminished Sen. John McCain's service as a naval aviator in Vietnam when he declared, "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president."

As Obama delivered a speech here on patriotism that tried to defuse attacks on his own background, he responded to the remarks of Wesley Clark, the retired Army general and onetime Democratic presidential candidate who suggested Sunday that McCain had not been tested as a wartime commander.

"For those like John McCain who have endured physical torment in service to our country, no further proof of such sacrifice is necessary," Obama said. "And let me also add that no one should ever devalue that service, especially for the sake of a political campaign — and that goes for supporters on both sides."

Clark, who was a leading supporter of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, was named in June to a group of national-security advisers to the Obama campaign.

In a bit of irony, one of McCain's defenders was retired Col. George "Bud" Day, a fellow prisoner of war who had appeared in the Swift boat ads that disparaged the military service of 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry.

Democrats accused McCain and Day of hypocrisy; Day defended himself and the ads.

"The Swift boat, quote, attacks were simply a revelation of the truth. The similarity doesn't exist," he said. "One was about laying out the truth. This one is about attempting to cast another shadow."

McCain, who four years ago condemned the ads, has accepted nearly $70,000 for his presidential campaign from the top donors of the group behind the attack ads and their relatives, a USA Today analysis shows.

Bob Perry, a Texas builder who gave nearly $4.5 million to Swift Boat Vets, and his wife, Doylene, each have given $4,400 to McCain's presidential campaign.

Obama arrived here in Independence, the home of former President Truman, to open a weeklong patriotism tour. He sought to ward off skepticism and silence persistent rumors about his loyalties to the nation.

"I will never question the patriotism of others in this campaign," Obama said, speaking over the applause of hundreds of supporters. "And I will not stand idly by when I hear others question mine."

Obama has built his candidacy on the promise of change in a year in which a vast majority of Americans think the nation is on the wrong track.

But he has repeatedly been forced to address false rumors that he will not recite the Pledge of Allegiance, place his hand over his heart during the national anthem or wear an American flag pin on his lapel.

He wore a flag pin for Monday's speech.

Earlier this month, the Obama campaign started a Web site, Stop the Smears, to combat such allegations, even posting videos of the candidate leading the Pledge of Allegiance as he opened a Senate session to combat.

Internet videos include one that pans over Democratic presidential candidates in Iowa with their hands over their hearts during the national anthem. In the video, Obama has his hands clasped in front of him.