Opinion: Hillary Clinton fired up, ready to go for Obama, an ally says

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Perhaps Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama truly connected as they sipped water at Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s house.

More likely, Clinton’s realpolitik side simply has reemerged.

Regardless, during a conference call Friday with several dozen of the major bankrollers of her now-defunct presidential campaign, Clinton was unequivocal in her commitment to getting Obama elected and doing what she can to make that happen, according to one of the donors who was on the line.

Alan Patricof, one of Clinton’s national finance directors, told The Times’ Peter Nicholas that she urged the donors to get fully on-board with Obama.

‘She urged all of us to be supportive,’ said Patricof, a New York-based financier. ‘She said she hopes she’ll be doing [fundraising] events with and for [Obama]. She was very upbeat, and her voice did not have any hesitance in it or anything else.’

Obama’s camp, obviously, will be hoping she strikes the same tone in public Saturday in delivering her much-anticipated concession speech at noon EDT in Washington.

Patricof said today’s call lasted about 30 minutes and that it avoided a particularly unpleasant subject -- the massive campaign debt she accrued in her losing bid.

Nor did topic No. 1 in political circles come up, Patricof said: Clinton’s prospects of becoming Obama’s vice presidential candidate.

-- Don Frederick