Obama treads gingerly around Clinton

(Politico) - For days, Barack Obama did not step foot in public without praising Hillary Rodham Clinton. Even on Wednesday, less than 12 hours after Clinton delivered a defiant nonconcession speech with more than a few eyebrow-raising lines, Obama was still at it, extolling her history-making run.

But an awkward reality hung over what was supposed to be the first day of the general election campaign — even after news broke Wednesday evening that Clinton would be dropping out of the race Friday. Like a family groping to move past a feud, Obama appeared eager to make up and Clinton seemed to want little part of a public coming together.

She took the stage Wednesday at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference — minutes after Obama spoke from the same dais — and barely mentioned him, vouching only for his commitment to Israel. Associates elsewhere in Washington were floating her name for vice president, yet Clinton did not even acknowledge that most of the political world had conferred the presidential nomination on her opponent.