President Obama and Bill Clinton team up to raise cash

In a turn around from 2008, former President Bill Clinton said on Sunday evening, "Barack Obama deserves to be re-elected president of the United States," according to the Associated Press.

The two kicked off the first of a series of joint fundraisers on Sunday evening in McClean Virginia, with Obama hoping to draw on Clinton's popularity and high approval ratings. Obama told contributors, "I ran for president because we had lost our way since Bill Clinton was in office," according to Bloomberg.

According to a Pew Research Center poll last year, Clinton still enjoyed high approval ratings with 67 percent of Americans viewing him favorably.

Clinton said yesterday, "[Obama's] got an opponent who basically wants to do what they did before, on steroids," comparing Republican presidential candidate to Obama's predecessor, President George W. Bush, reported Bloomberg.

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The New York Times noted that "the last three days have seen a remarkable confluence of the two presidents, despite a fraught relationship." Obama's campaign released a video narrated by Clinton on Friday and Clinton joined Obama for the fundraising dinner on Sunday, to help counter the wealthy contributions to Romney's campaign and supporting Super PACs.

Obama's strategist, David Axelrod, said, "President Clinton has been the source of very good advice, and very meaningful support," according to The Times.

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Just as Obama pulls closer to his Democratic predecessor, his campaign has also been seeking to cast Romney as a return to the policies of his Republican predecessor, Bush.

In a speech earlier this month, Vice President Joe Biden said of Romney, "He offers his prescription as if somehow it's a new idea, folks, like something we haven't seen before, even worse, like something we haven't actually tried before," according to ABC News.

According to Politico, Obama said on Sunday, "The economy in fits and starts grew between 2000 and 2008, but wages and incomes flat-lined. Corporations were profitable, but ordinary people felt like they were working harder and harder just to get by. That sense of middle-class security and the notion that successive generations would do better than the previous one – that felt like it was slipping away for too many people. That’s why I ran for president in 2008 – to restore that basic promise," reminding the audience of Bush's policies.

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