Former Obama opponent, Clinton pal, now backing Barack

Barack Obama's only defeat in a political race was against Rep. Bobby Rush in 2000. In Audacity of Hope, Obama writes:

It was a race in which everything that could go wrong did go wrong, in which my own mistakes were compounded by tragedy and farce.

Bobby Rush was an early supporter of Bill Clinton's 1992 run for president, and in turn Clinton endorsed Rush in his race against Obama, and Bill recorded a radio spot for Rush that year, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

In 2004, Rush backed the campaign of the early front-runner, Blair Hull, in the Democratic primary for the US Senate seat Obama eventually won. Hull's campaign collapsed after some embarrassing revelations in his divorce file became public.

But Rush is in the Obama camp, despite his history with the Clintons, telling the Chicago Sun-Times:

It's one of the most difficult decisions that I've had to make in politics. Bill Clinton and the Clinton family are very close.

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