June 27, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Barack Obama says he'll help Hillary Rodham Clinton pay off her more than 20 million dollar campaign debt.

Obama got a standing ovation from more than 200 of Clinton's biggest fundraisers in Washington when he said he's told his top fundraisers "to get out their checkbooks and start working" to clear away Clinton's debt.

Obama wrote a personal check for $4,600 from his wife and himself, which is the most a couple can give.

Obama says he won't ask his small-dollar contributors to donate, partly because "their budgets are tighter."

Clinton says she knows some of her supporters still have hard feelings over the primary campaign, but says Democrats "are a family." She says the party has the opportunity "to really demonstrate clearly" that it knows what's at stake -- regaining the White House.

(Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.)