US:BARACK OBAMA must work to heal the divisions with Hillary Clinton and her supporters if he is to win the White House, says former Obama adviser, Samantha Power. Ms Power resigned from the campaign after calling Mrs Clinton "a monster".
Asked if she believed Mrs Clinton would make a good vice-presidential candidate, Ms Power said she believed that Mr Obama "needs Senator Clinton in some capacity" and he had acknowledged as much by saying that she would be "on anybody's shortlist".
"I think one just has to step back and look out for two things - one, what the best ticket is, which he will figure out with his advisers, and two, how he and she can work most productively.
"I think the image of Senator Clinton, president Clinton and Barack Obama on stage together is going to go an enormous way towards thrilling the Democratic base and hopefully healing some of the wounds that are left after a really very long and difficult and exhilarating race."
Ms Power said that Senator Clinton had been "unbelievably impressive" during the Democratic primaries, showing great resilience and developing a policy agenda. Asked if she hoped to become involved again in Mr Obama's bid for the White House now he has secured the Democratic nomination, Ms Power said her hope was that he would win and she would help in whatever way she could.
"I was just a volunteer before my mistake in March and if he wanted me to volunteer again in some capacity, that would be terrific but the priority now is bringing Clinton and Obama supporters together and that's going to take a little bit of time and a lot of healing."
Ms Power, who was born in Ireland but moved to the US when she was nine, was speaking at University College Cork where she received an honorary law doctorate in recognition of her work in the human rights field.