Inside look at Obama team approach to helping Clinton pay off some primary debt. Clinton, Obama, unite on Thursday, Friday.

SHARE Inside look at Obama team approach to helping Clinton pay off some primary debt. Clinton, Obama, unite on Thursday, Friday.

WASHINGTONIve learned some more details about the Obama team approach to help Clinton pay off some of her primary debt.

Hat tip to ABC, AP and CNN for their scoops on the Tuesday conference call presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) held with members of his National Finance Committee, where he asked his best fund-raisers to help Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) retire primary debt. (Not the $12 million loan she gave her campaign to keep her bid alive)

Now for more.

*National Finance Chair Penny Pritzker led the call; it started at about 5:15 central and lasted some 30 minutes. Obama was on between five and ten minutes.

*While Clinton owes vendors some $10 million, the Obama money people were not asked to raise any certain amount.

*There is the thought that even if Obama was to make an e-mail appeal to his small donors for Clinton–his band of low-dollar netroots loyalists would not be willing to make donations for a campaign in the past when Obama needs money for the November contest and he is not taking pubic funds.

The Obama call was part of a series of money-and-unity related event this week where Obama and Clinton wash each others hands. On Thursday, Obama and Clinton appear together before Clintons top donorsat the Mayflower Hotel here. The idea is for Clinton big bundlers to get the unity ask from Obama himself. While this is a fund-raising event, no one is being asked to write to a check for Obama in order to get in the door. On Friday Obama and Clinton appear together in Unity, N.H., a town where they both got 107 votes in the January primary.

Invited to the Thursday gathering: Clinton Hillraisers from across the country who raised $100,000 or more plus Washington area bundlers with a lower threshold; the thresh-hold for them to get to the Mayflower is raising $25,000.

*The Obama call had to come before the Thursday Obama/Clinton mixer in order to convey this message: Well see how supportive the Clinton money people are of Obama. As a bid toward unity, we want to make clear we are willing to help Clintonbut weve got a ton of money to raise for Obama. But for the good of the unity cause, we will help her put some money together.

The Latest
So the Sox have that going for them, which is, you know, something.
Two bison were born Friday at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia. The facility’s 30-acre pasture has long been home to the grazing mammals.
Have the years of quarterback frustration been worth this moment? We’re about to find out.
The massive pop culture convention runs through Sunday at McCormick Place.
With all the important priorities the state has to tackle, why should Springfield rush to help the billionaire McCaskey family build a football stadium? The answer: They shouldn’t. The arguments so far don’t convince us this project would truly benefit the public.