In a joint statement, the two men said they had a “great conversation” during their meeting, which came on the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“They discussed the campaign briefly but mostly talked about how the world has changed since September 11, 2001,” the statement said. “They also spoke about what the next president can do to help make the economy work for all Americans, as it did under President Clinton, and ensure safety and prosperity far beyond the coming the election.”

The lunch at Clinton’s office in New York’s Harlem neighborhood was the first lengthy meeting between the two since Obama emerged as the victor in his drawn-out Democratic primary battle against Clinton’s wife, Hillary. Bill Clinton has been widely reported to have nursed hard feelings about his wife’s loss, although he strongly endorsed Obama at the Democratic convention in Denver and plans to campaign for him in the coming weeks.

“We’re putting him to work,” Obama joked to reporters as he stood with the former president in an office reception area lined with books, photographs and memorabilia.

“I’ve agreed to do a substantial number of things, whatever I’m asked to do,” Clinton said of his plans for campaigning on Obama’s behalf.

Asked for his predictions about the close White House race between Obama and McCain, Clinton said he though Obama would win “pretty handily.”

To which Obama replied: “There you go. You can take it from the president of the United States. He knows a little something about politics.”

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/ Mike Segar - Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama and former U.S. President Bill Clinton appear together outside Clinton’s Harlem New York office, following a lunch meeting Sept. 11.

Campaigning for his wife Hillary in Pennsylvania, the former president accused the Obama campaign of “playing the race card” and later lashed out at a reporter who asked him about his comments.

Could this hurt Hillary’s prospects in the must-win Keystone state, which holds its nominating contest today?

Bill Clinton was so popular among African Americans during his time in the White House that he was sometimes known as “the first black president,” but much of that goodwill evaporated after the racially charged South Carolina primary in January.

Many blacks were angered when he compared Barack Obama to Jesse Jackson, seeing it as an attempt to marginalize a black candidate who has drawn white support. Bill said he meant no offense, and later accused the Obama campaign of trying to take advantage of the remarks.

Bill took a lower-profile role in his wife’s campaign for several weeks after his run-ins with reporters who asked him about the remarks received prominent news coverage.

But evidently he still feels he was misrepresented.

When asked on Monday if he had been mistaken to compare Obama to Jackson, the civil rights leader and 1988 presidential candidate, Clinton told Philadelphia’s WHYY radio:

“No, and I think they played the race card on me. … I frankly thought the way the Obama campaign reacted was disrespectful to Jesse Jackson.”

On Tuesday, Obama seemed perplexed by Clinton’s remarks.

“Was there a plan to get him to say that my campaign was like Jesse Jackson’s? I don’t know what he was referring to, unfortunately,” Obama said at a diner in Pittsburgh.

Hillary did not seem so eager to revisit the subject.

“It’s old news. It’s been around for several months now,” she said in a television interview.

Clinton tried to distance himself from the remarks in a testy exchange at the Jewish Community Center in Pittsburgh. Here’s a full transcript, provided by the NBC reporter involved:

NBC reporter Mike Memoli: “Sir what did you mean yesterday when you said that the Obama campaign was playing the race card on you?”

Clinton: “When did I say that, and to whom did I say that?”

Memoli: “On WHYY radio yesterday.”

Clinton: “No, no, no. That’s not what I said. You always follow me around and play these little games, and I’m not going to play your games today. This is a day about election day. Go back and see what the question was, and what my answer was. You have mischaracterized it to get another cheap story to divert the American people from the real urgent issues before us, and I choose not to play your game today. Have a nice day.”

Memoli: “Respectfully sir, though, you did say …”

Clinton: “Have a nice day.” [continues shaking hands with supporters]. “I said what I said, you can go and look at the interview. And if you’ll be real honest, you’ll also report what the question was and what the answer was.”

Memoli: “They asked you if you regretted your comparing Jesse Jackson to Barack Obama on the day after the South Carolina primary.”

Clinton: “And I pointed out that I did not do that, and that I complimented them both. And that Jesse Jackson took no offense. And I called him myself, I said: ‘Did you find that offensive?’ And he said no.”

photo credit: REUTERS/Bradley Bower (Clinton listens to Hillary Clinton address supporters at a Philadelphia rally on April 21)

Hillary Clinton, the former U.S. first lady, has been accused of playing loose with the facts ever since her dramatic description of arriving in Bosnia under sniper fire was contradicted by the actual videotape of her visit.

The controversy had seemed to run its course — until Thursday, when Bill Clinton got into the act while campaigning for his wife in Indiana.

“There was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated, and immediately apologized for it, what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995,” Clinton said, according to MSNBC.

The former president accused the news media of hyping the story.

“You would’ve thought, you know, that she’d robbed a bank the way they carried on about this. And some of them when they’re 60 they’ll forget something when they’re tired at 11:00 at night, too,” he said.

In fact the trip was in 1996, not 1995 as Clinton said, and Hillary Clinton did not speak about Bosnia at 11 p.m., but repeated the exaggeration several times during day-time campaign events.

Neither did Clinton immediately apologize for the remark. Instead, she has simply said she misspoke.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

But in Indianapolis on Tuesday, Clinton brushed aside a question from an individual in the crowd who asked for her take on her mother’s handling of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, WISH-TV reported.

“Wow, you’re the first person actually that’s ever asked me that question in the, I don’t know, 70 college campuses that I’ve now been to and I do not think that’s any of your business,” Clinton responded according to the station.

The crowd at the student union at Butler University applauded, WISH said. That was supposed to be the last question, but Clinton insisted on taking one more question, the report said.

When it was revealed in 1998 that President Bill Clinton had had an affair with Lewinsky, the news set off a protracted drama that led to his impeachment and a failed attempt to remove him from office.   

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

- Photo Credit: Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi (Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton applauds as her daughter Chelsea takes the stage at a rally in Austin, Texas on March 3)