NYT:
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will endorse Senator Barack Obama on Saturday, bringing a close to her 17-month campaign for the White House, aides said. Her decision came after Democrats urged her Wednesday to leave the race and allow the party to coalesce around Mr. Obama.
Howard Wolfson, one of Mrs. Clinton’s chief strategists, and other aides said she would express support for Mr. Obama and party unity at an event in Washington that day. One adviser said Mrs. Clinton would concede defeat, congratulate Mr. Obama and proclaim him the party’s nominee, while pledging to do what was needed to assure his victory in November….
Mrs. Clinton’s decision to suspend her campaign, which was first reported by ABC News, was a bow to the emerging political reality. No one in her campaign – including by all reports Mrs. Clinton herself – saw a viable road to the nomination. A suspension of the campaign allows her to continue raising money and pay off millions of dollars in debt.
So there it is. Congratulations all around — to both the Clinton and the Obama campaigns. VP speculation can wait — Obama has announced his three-member VP search committee (Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg will head it; the other two are Jim Johnson and Eric Holder), and there is no indication that they will do anything any time soon. Smart move to take it slow.
Meanwhile, there is much to be done before November, and it can begin in earnest right now.
I know speculation can wait and I won’t speculate here-but it looks like Clinton is now withdrawing herself from consideration. Politics 1 states that the vetting process the committee is using will examine all business records and tax returns for signs of any potential conflict. Apparently the Clinton’s do not want to release his business dealings to the group and Hillary is stopping the draft effort before it begins. At this point I think including her in drafting a platform, paying off some of her campaign debt (I think paying off half of it is reasonable) will be good proactive steps in the right direction for Obama to heal the party. But people are free to speculate all they want-Clinton does not want VP.
Hillary is too big to be anyone’s vice president. She will decide what is right for her and our party.
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p>Senator Clinton is and will continue to be a titan in the U.S. Senate!
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I can’t tell you how relieved I am that the primary is finally over, mostly from news coverage burn-out. Now we can all think about something else of importance, like the Lakers-Celtics. And I agree on the VP committee taking it slow, very slow, give us at least a few weeks.