Facing primary fight from Sanders, Clinton embraces Obama

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Facing fresh campaign anxieties, Hillary Clinton is attaching herself to President Barack Obama, hoping to overcome liberal enthusiasm for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders with a full-throated embrace of her one-time rival and boss.

Central to that strategy: shoring up her standing with African-American voters who helped make Obama the first black president and who could determine her fate if she falters in the first-to-vote contests of Iowa and New Hampshire.

Clinton, Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day on the steps of the South Carolina statehouse - which, for the first time, was celebrated with no Confederate flag flying overhead. The event was replete with Obama's influence: As Clinton's two main challengers marched to the capitol, hundreds of faithful chanted the president's campaign mantra, "Fired Up. Ready to Go!"

"(King) was counting on all of us to keep going after he was gone, to be a part of what President Obama calls the 'Joshua Generation,' carrying forward the holy work the heroes of the civil rights movement began," Clinton said.

Clinton's alignment with Obama, who remains popular with Democrats, was on full display at Sunday night's final debate before the Iowa caucuses.

Presenting herself as his heir apparent, Clinton warned that Sanders' universal health care plan threatened to reopen a contentious debate with Republicans that could undermine the so-called "Obamacare" law.

"To start over again with a whole new debate is something that I think would set us back. The Republicans just voted last week to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and thank goodness, President Obama vetoed it and saved Obamacare for the American people," Clinton said.

She repeated that argument during a town hall meeting in Toledo, Iowa, Monday night, adding that her plans to improve health care access include requiring insurance companies to give members three free sick visits that would not count toward their annual deductible.

In South Carolina, Sanders countered that his "Medicare for all" proposal was the natural evolution to the health care law, reminding Clinton that he played a role in its passage. "I'm on the committee that wrote the Affordable Care Act," he said.