Team Clinton Hints at Party Unity Effort, Denies VP Talk

After seemingly endless months of campaign-trail tension, Hillary Clinton gave indications Saturday that lines of communication were open between her camp and Barack Obama’s about how to unify the Democratic Party once the nomination question is finally settled — but, as she reminded Clinton-supporting superdelegates during a conference call, it ain’t over yet.

According to Talking Points Memo, Clinton aide Harold Ickes chimed in during the call, claiming that there was no discussion going on in inner campaign circles about the possibility of Clinton aiming for the vice presidency.

Talking Points Memo:

Hillary held a private rally-the-troops conference call with her super-delegate supporters this afternoon, urging them to believe that “this race is not over,” vowing to them she’d promote Dem unity after the primary, and conceding that she knows what they and the party are going through “is not easy.”

Somewhat tantalizingly, Hillary also claimed that there were back-channel talks of some kind going on between the two campaigns, possibly about how to maintain Democratic unity after the primary. Asked by a super-delegate whether there were discussions going on between the two camps about what would happen after the voting concluded, she said:

“There’s a lot of communication between both of the campaigns all the time. I don’t know how specific it is, but we have very open lines of communication…I know that both Senator Obama and I are committed, and the campaigns are as well, to making sure that when this is resolved” we will do everything we can to “unify the party.” She didn’t elaborate further.

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