Putting their rivalry aside, Barack Obama and John McCain made a side-by-side sojourn to Ground Zero on the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks today and paid solemn tribute to those who lost their lives at the hallowed site.
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The Democratic and Republican presidential combatants walked side by side down the long ramp descending into the pit, joined by Cindy McCain and Mayor Bloomberg.
McCain and Obama, who have been embroiled in a nasty campaign over everything from “lipstick on a pig” to attack ads depicting wolves, chatted in spurts as they walked down the ramp.
The candidates stopped at the bottom of the ramp to speak with a small group of 9/11 victims’ relatives. They handed Obama a pink rose, and McCain a pale yellow one.
Bloomberg, arm in arm with McCain’s wife, followed behind.
The foursome walked to the circle surrounding two symbolic reflecting pools – already covered in flowers from the morning ceremony for victims’ relatives – and placed their flowers down. They stood for a moment of silence.
Obama’s wife, Michelle, was with their children in Chicago.
After the Ground Zero rites, the candidates walked along a semicircular barricade where members of an honor guard stood by. One uniformed service member placed a pin on McCain’s lapel, and another took fixed one to Cindy McCain’s blazer.
Fifteen minutes later, they were back at the top of the ramp, where Obama and McCain shook hands with police officers and thanked them for their service. A little girl sitting astride the shoulders of her father, a Port Authority police officer, handed Obama two roses.
Then the two men had a brief embrace. Obama placed his hand on McCain’s shoulder and held it there, patting his rival’s back for a few moments before they walked to their motorcades.
“Thanks, we’ll see you,” McCain said as they parted ways.
The pair had previously agreed to take part in a service-oriented forum at Columbia University last night. Last week, they also agreed to make the joint Ground Zero appearance.
The McCain and Obama campaigns also suspended all political ads today.
The Democratic nominee began his day with another laying down of arms – having his first sitdown with Bill Clinton since the bitter primary battle pitting Obama against Hillary Rodham Clinton ended in early June.
The former president predicted Obama will win “pretty handily.”
The two chatted cordially for 90 minutes as reporters swarmed around them in the 14th-floor office space on 125th Street in Harlem, where Clinton’s foundation is housed.
Obama asked Clinton things like how long it takes him to commute from Chappaqua (it took 45 minutes today, the former president said).
Clinton said he was hitting the road later this month for Obama, and had agreed to do “a substantial number of things.”
“We’re putting him to work,” Obama joked.
Then, asked about the election and whether it’s too close for comfort, Clinton said, “I predict that Sen. Obama will win and win pretty handily.”
Clinton started to say something else, but Obama interjected, “There you go.
“You can take it from the president of the United States. He knows a little something about politics.”
Earlier in the day, McCain visited the field in Shanksville, Pa., where United Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11, 2001 after its heroic passengers battled the hijackers.
McCain noted that the terrorists were aiming that day to strike the Capitol, perhaps killing thousands. “They, and possibly I, owe our lives to the passengers who summoned the courage and love necessary to deprive our depraved and hateful enemies their terrible triumph,” he said.