It doesn’t compare to the number of sit downs that feuding rappers occasionally have, but it’s close. When Barack Obama is in New York this Thursday, he will have a private lunch with former president, William Jefferson Clinton.

Obama will be in the Big Apple to commemorate  the September 11 attacks alongside rival John McCain; both have promised to turn off the partisan politics for the seventh anniversary of the worst terrorist attacks on the country’s soil. Apparently when Clinton heard Obama was going to be in town, he extended the lunch date invitation.

Clinton and Obama have not been bestest friends. The tight primary race between the senator from Illinois and Hilary Clinton, the junior senator from New York, frayed the relationship. Clinton went to the mat for his wife, as expected, but there were moments when the guy from Hope, Arkansas acted like your standard political attack dog instead of a former president.

There has also been the idea of respect. Obama has gone out of his way to seek the counsel of older Democrats like Ted Kennedy and John Kerry; however, he has not been deferential enough to Big Dawg Clinton, the only Democrat who has a history of winning battles against the GOP.

Obama should do the opposite of 2000 Al Gore. In that race for the White house, Gore kept Clinton in the stable, convinced America was tired of him and his personal life. An unleashed Clinton could have helped Gore win a few more electoral college victories.  Sure there are tons of negatives on Clinton’s side (he has a tough time staying on message, is a bit undisciplined, and makes everything, no matter the topic about him), but Obama needs to ride him all the way to November.