Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who engaged in a fierce political competition for their party's presidential nomination, starred Friday in their first joint campaign appearance in the tiny hamlet of Unity, N.H.

The two senators, who engaged in a kiss, conversation, laughs and much-needed bonding time, left no doubt about the message they wanted to deliver to party loyalists Friday: We're in this together.

After their 15-month, tooth-and-nail struggle that split the party nearly 50-50, their show on Friday was so carefully coordinated that even their clothing matched: he in a sky-blue tie, she in a sky-blue blazer. Each candidate earned 107 votes in the town during the New Hampshire primary.

Backed by massive letters spelling out UNITY, both Clinton and Obama - in a departure from past appearances dominated by some sharp rhetorical elbows - delivered effusive praise of each other before a crowd that alternately chanted "Obama!" and "Hillary!"

"This was a hard-fought primary campaign ... we have gone toe-to-toe," Clinton said of Obama. "But today, and every day going forward, we stand shoulder-to-shoulder for the ideas we share, the values we cherish and the country we love."

She issued a warning to Clinton supporters threatening to withhold their votes - or vote for Republican candidate John McCain- now that her presidential bid has failed.

"I strongly urge you ... to remember who we are standing for in this election," including single mothers needing child care, veterans of the Iraq war needing health care and Americans strapped by high energy costs, she said.

She said those Democrats have a choice - move forward for change or stay with McCain, who she said would continue the policies of President Bush.

Obama, noting that he had campaigned for months against "this great lady ... and an historic candidate for president," said that thanks to Clinton, his own two daughters "can take for granted that they can do anything that the boys can do ... and do it in heels."

And in a signal that the presumed Democratic nominee aims to reach out to Bill Clinton, who publicly has been less than enthusiastic for the Illinois senator, Obama said, "I know how much we need both Bill and Hillary Clinton, as a party. ... We need them badly. Not just my campaign, but the American people."

In California, which Clinton won by nine percentage points, Republicans weren't impressed by the big show from Democrats.

"Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's show of unity rings hollow and is disingenuous - especially after months in which Hillary Clinton has shown that Barack Obama lacks the judgment and the experience to be commander in chief," said Hector Barajas, the spokesman for the California Republican Party. "Looks like we've got another example of change you can't believe in."

But Democratic loyalists, including those who passionately supported Clinton's candidacy, said the joint event signaled Democrats are on the right track.

"First you fall in love, then you fall in line - and then you sing Kumbaya," said Democratic strategist Chris Lehane, a former Clinton White House spokesman who supported her bid. "Obama is a tremendously compelling candidate ... and George W. Bush provides a particularly galvanizing force for Democrats to come together."

Peter Ragone, an adviser to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, joked that "today I'm humming ... 'We Are Family.' "

He said following the event, "as a person who went to several states to work for Hillary and has great pride in what she did, I am absolutely committed to getting Obama elected."

San Franciscan Susie Tompkins Buell, one of Clinton's most influential and generous supporters - she has continued to express deep concern about Clinton's treatment and Obama's candidacy - said the unity event showed Clinton "is really working hard to do what she needs to do. She's definitely going to work her heart out for him."

And Obama's new effort to raise money to retire her campaign debt is "a positive sign," said Tompkins Buell.

But Tompkins Buell, who recently founded a political action committee to support Clinton's historic campaign, stopped short of endorsing Obama, saying she is still "kind of keeping it open" as to whom she will support for president.

In the Obama camp, Wade Randlett, a Silicon Valley insider and longtime fundraiser and supporter for the senator, said he believes key supporters will come around and already the party has seen "a waterfall of movement in that direction."

Randlett himself is now writing a check to help Clinton out, saying, "if my candidate asks, that's what I'm here for - to be one of his supporters."

The event in Unity followed an appearance Thursday at a private fundraising meeting in Washington, where Obama addressed and reassured some of Clinton's top donors.

Obama urged his supporters and donors to write checks to Clinton and help her erase more than $20 million in campaign debts - and said he himself wrote a check for $4,600, the $2,300 maximum each for himself and his wife.

And the feeling was reciprocated: The Clintons, it was reported, have now written checks for the maximum donation to the Obama campaign.

By Carla Marinucci, San Francisco Chronicle, June 28, 2008