Ed Rendell + Barack Obama = Hillary Clinton

Sen. Barack Obama embraces Philadelphia City Councilman Bob Brady and is applauded by Gov. Ed Rendell before speaking during a Democratic Unity Rally at Temple University's McGonigle Hall October 21, 2006 in Philadelphia. (Photo by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images)

Tomorrow Pennsylvania may decide whether the Democratic candidate for President will be Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., or former Philadelphia mayor and current Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell’s choice, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

Rendell has said he’ll support whoever the Democratic candidate is, but it is interesting to see how Rendell has supported Clinton, whose husband was a staunch ally of his during his mayoralty from 1992 to nearly 2000. This a Salon article from earlier this month:

The Clintons have always had plenty of friends in Pennsylvania, though Hillary’s recent focus on her childhood in the Scranton area didn’t get quite as much play until her campaign came to depend on winning the state. Ed Rendell, whose success as Philadelphia’s reform-oriented mayor in the 1990s became the model for some of Bill Clinton’s national urban policy, and who went on to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee under Clinton, is now the state’s popular two-term governor. He’s practically taken the month off from his day job to help Hillary, bustling around in her motorcade and introducing her to all his fans. Rendell feeds the Clinton nostalgia, as well, reminding voters in the Philadelphia suburbs how well the city did during Bill’s administration (and, ahem, Ed’s). [Source]

But, during a Democratic unity rally in October 2006 (depicted above), Rendell, who was in the midst of a gubernatorial challenge from Republican and former Pittsburgh Steeler Lynn Swann, had Obama, a quickly rising star, at his side.

Photo courtesy of Day Life.