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WASHINGTON: Hillary Clinton has thrown her full
support behind Barack Obama, as she unequivocally endorsed the
Democratic White House presumptive nominee and vowed to do all she
could to make her former foe president.
Clinton’s quest to be the first
woman commander in chief ended Saturday with her imploring her
backers to vote for Obama, saying he was a man of “grace and
grit” who was, like her, tilting at history after living the
American dream.
“The way to continue our fight
now, to accomplish the goals for which we stand is to take our
energy, our passions, our strengths and do all we can to help elect
Barack Obama the next president of the United States,” Clinton
said, basking in the devotion of around 2,000 supporters at a
raucous rally.
“Today, as I suspend my
campaign, I congratulate him on the victory he has won and the
extraordinary race he has run,” said Clinton, who angered some
Democrats with her defiant tone after Obama clinched the nomination
last week.
Obama, vying to become the first
African-American president in US history, welcomed her endorsement
and paid tribute to her “valiant and historic” campaign.
“No one knows better than
Senator Clinton how desperately America and the American people need
change, and I know she will continue to be in the forefront of that
battle this fall and for years to come,” Obama said in a
statement.
Although he did not address
whether he would pick Clinton for his vice-presidential running
mate, Obama said he was “thrilled and honored to have Senator
Clinton’s support.”
Obama now faces a tough fight
against Republican presumptive nominee John McCain after the
turbulent Democratic contest, which has torn at party unity.
Clinton gave a ringing
endorsement of Obama in a gracious speech in Washington’s ornate
National Building Museum, which positioned her as a historic figure
who shattered gender barriers.
Clinton borrowed Obama’s “yes
we can!” mantra, and repeatedly told her army of faithful, 18
million supporters that they must put her former rival in the White
House.
“I have seen his strength and
determination and his grace and his grit. In his own life, Barack
Obama has lived the American dream,” she said, after her
endorsement was met with cheers, and some loud but scattered boos.
She went out of her way to
persuade her supporters to back Obama, as McCain makes a play for
her army of white working-class supporters and women.
“The Democratic Party is a
family, and now it is time to restore the ties that bind us together
and to come together around the ideals we share, the values we
cherish and the country we love,” she said.
In a speech that marked the end
of an era, with her family shuffling off center stage for the first
time in 16 years, Clinton had former President Bill Clinton and
daughter Chelsea at her side in the museum’s ancient Rome-style
Great Hall.
Terry O’Neill, a Clinton
supporter from Bethesda, in suburban Maryland, said it was now up to
Obama to win over the former first lady’s millions of supporters.
“She earned my support by her
leadership on issues important to me,” she said.
“I know he is open-minded, he
is pro-choice [backs abortion rights] he is a Democrat. Now it is up
to him to earn my support.”
Clinton’s constituency of
working-class whites, women and Hispanics could play a key role in
sending Obama to the White House, expanding his power base of
African-Americans, young voters and more affluent Democrats.
After an often-bitter campaign,
the New York senator began to build bridges with Obama in a secret
meeting with him on Thursday night, which fanned more speculation
about her vice presidential prospects.
Clinton’s speech was the final
act in a near 17-month odyssey, which has encompassed two winters,
the snows of Iowa and the dry heat of Nevada, gritty towns of
Pennsylvania and swank Hollywood fundraisers.
The former first lady, 60, led
national polls by huge margins last year, but her campaign was
stunned by her loss in the leadoff Iowa caucuses on January 3.
She pulled off a dramatic
comeback in New Hampshire days later, but her frontrunner
strategy—she ran virtually as an incumbent—was buckled by
Obama’s soaring message of hope and change, and superb campaign
organization.
--AFP
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