Obama: Media response to Iraq remarks overblown

The fundraisers will be the first joint appearances by the former foes since their lovefest in Unity, N.H., on June 27.

Obama said his aides and those to former President Clinton are still arranging their first campaign appearances together. What role Bill Clinton will play in Obama's campaign has been a glaring question mark ever since the former president made comments earlier this year that Obama's supporters said injected race into the nomination contest.

Obama plans to campaign next week in North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia, all Southern states that have been the province of Republicans but where his campaign thinks he can make inroads--or even win--in part because of their large black populations.

It "would be pretty foolish" not to try, Obama said.

"Democrats can't shrink the map and win," he told reporters. "The solid South for Republicans is part of that shrinkage of the map. ... I want to be greedy."

Before leaving Montana, Obama spoke via satellite to a conference of the National Education Association, the largest teachers union.