FORMER PRESIDENTS:WASHINGTON – US president Barack Obama has enlisted two former US presidents to help raise more cash for relief.
Determined to stay on top of the rapidly unfolding humanitarian crisis in the quake zone, Mr Obama told his top aides that responding to the tragedy should be their top priority.
Former president Bill Clinton, a Democrat who is already a United Nations special envoy for Haiti, and former president George W Bush, the Republican who preceded Mr Obama in the White House, agreed to a request from the president to help the quake relief effort.
Mr Obama spoke by phone with Mr Bush on Wednesday night about helping out.
“Both of them have agreed to take part in this,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, promising more details in the next few days.
The effort will be similar to that performed by Mr Clinton and Mr Bush’s father, former president George HW Bush, when they led a huge international relief effort to help the recovery from the 2004 tsunami.
George W Bush has kept a relatively low profile since leaving the White House a year ago, working on a book about his time in office and developing his presidential library in Dallas. – (Reuters)