CHICAGO, Ill — Barack Obama said he’s not worried that Bill Clinton hasn’t delivered a splashy endorsement, and that he’s committed to helping Clinton’s wife pay down her substantial campaign debt in a wide-ranging press conference at the Westin Hotel today.

Obama also objected to the characterization that his decision to opt out of the public financing system he once promised to work to preserve was a flip-flop — denying that he’d ever committed to staying within the system in teh first place. “If you recall my original statement, it was prompted by the fact that everybody had said, including John McCain, that they were looking to opt out of the system,” he said. “It was on our own initiative without any prompting that we wrote to the FEC” to preserve the option of remaining within the system. “So the answer is no, I don’t think that it is going to damage my credibility at all.”

John McCain’s called that an “arrogant refusal to concede that he broke his word to the American people.” Spokesman Tucker Bounds writes that “everyone in American knows that Barack Obama refused to keep his commitment to public financing because of the money,” calling it “typical politics.”

On the Clintons, Obama said he’s looking forward to having Bill Clinton campaign for him across the country — and that the former president’s low profile support in the form of a statement from an aide is understandable. “I’m going to be appearing with Senator Clinton, the former president’s wife who was involved in an epic, historic primary with me, and then I’m going to be campaigning with her on Friday,” he said. “The former president wouldn’t want to upstage what is going to be, I think, a terrific unity event.”

“If the question is do I want Bill Clinton campaigning for us, for the ticket, leading into November, the answer is absolutely yes. I want him involved. He is a brilliant politician. He was a outstanding president. And so I want his help not only in campaigning but also in governing. And I’m confident that I’ll get that help.”

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