Details About Barack Obama's Complicated Friendship With Bill Clinton

"I hate that man Obama more than any man I've ever met, more than any man who ever lived." Those are Bill Clinton's fiery words about the 44th President, or so claimed Edward Klein in his book, "Blood Feud." For two men at the pinnacle of Democratic power, Obama and Clinton have had a strained political relationship which didn't exactly start on solid ground.

The rocky road began long before Obama entered the White House. During his first run for Congress in 2000, Clinton sided with Obama's opponent, Bobby Rush. He even recorded ads to help Rush win, which he did with a staggering 62% landslide. The conflict really reached boiling point in 2008, however, when both Obama and Hillary Clinton ran in the Democratic primary. Speaking on Obama's campaign, Clinton reportedly said, "Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen" — a comment that ignited accusations of racial undertones. Clinton doubled down, telling WHYY News Radio: "I think that they played the race card on me. We now know, from memos from the campaign, that they planned to do it all along."

Though Clinton ultimately endorsed Obama, the friction didn't entirely fade. A revealing moment on ABC's "The View" in 2008 saw Bill Clinton claiming Hillary would have been the best pick over Joe Biden for vice president. There was reportedly no love lost between Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama either, with the latter apparently coining the term "Hildebeest" for the former Secretary of State.

With that said, Clinton and Obama are both savvy enough to know that occasionally, in politics, necessity trumps personal gripes. After Hillary's primary defeat, Clinton publicly endorsed Obama. He appeared in a campaign ad encouraging voters to back Obama, a crucial move in uniting the Democratic Party ahead of an election they would eventually win. Then, in December 2008, when Clinton met Obama for a private Oval Office meeting. Afterwards, they jointly addressed reporters, with Clinton delivering a powerful defense of Obama's tax deal that helped quell the liberal uprising (via YouTube).

As Obama campaigned for re-election in 2012, Clinton became a central tenet of his efforts. Obama cited the economic boom under his predecessor as his vision for success. A brief flare-up arose when Clinton praised Mitt Romney's private equity career at a time when Obama's campaign was attacking it. While this caused a minor stir, Clinton eventually made it clear that Obama's policies were right for the country, per CNN.

What was once an uneasy association eventually developed into one of mutual respect (and benefit), especially after Obama appointed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. By the time Hillary ran for president in 2016, Obama offered her his support. The two families, once bitterly divided by politics, also came together in 2024 to endorse Kamala Harris in her run against Donald Trump for president. Sometimes, when the stakes are high, even the most complicated relationships can be overcome to form powerful alliances.