Clinton ends campaign by endorsing rival Obama

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton brought an end to her campaign for the White House on Saturday with a rousing farewell to thousands of supporters here and an emotional and unequivocal call for her supporters to get behind Sen. Barack Obama, the man who defeated her for the Democratic nomination.

For 28 minutes, standing alone on a stage in the historic National Building Museum, Clinton spoke not only about the importance of electing Obama, but also the extent to which her campaign was a milestone for women seeking to become president. She urged women who had followed her campaign - who had turned out at her headquarters, flocked to her rallies and poured into the polls to vote for her - not to take the wrong lesson from her loss.

"You can be so proud that, from now on, it will be unremarkable for a woman to win primary state victories, unremarkable to have a woman in a close race to be our nominee, unremarkable to think that a woman can be the president of the United States,'' she said. "To those who are disappointed that we couldn't go all of the way, especially the young people who put so much into this campaign, it would break my heart if, in falling short of my goal, I in any way discouraged any of you from pursuing yours.''

At that point the cheers, mostly from women, swelled so loud that Clinton's remaining words could not be heard.

Clinton first mentioned Obama seven minutes into her speech. But unlike her speech Tuesday night after he won the nomination, when she gave no sign that she considered the fight over, she swept away any doubt that she had any hesitancy about endorsing him or about his qualifications to be president.

"The way to continue our fight now, to accomplish the goals for which we stand, is to take our energy, our passion, our strength and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama the next president of the United States,'' Clinton said, her voice echoing across the stone walls of the building. "Today, as I suspend my campaign, I congratulate him on the victory he has won and the extraordinary race he has run. I endorse him and throw my full support behind him.''

It was a dramatic - and at times theatrical - end to a candidacy that transfixed the country. Many of her supporters watched, some weeping, turning out in huge numbers to witness and appreciate the history of this latest turn in the story of the Clintons. If it was a clearly personal moment for Clinton, it was a political one as well, and she left no doubt about the main message she wanted to send to her supporters, in the hall and watching on television sets across the country.

"I ask all of you to join me in working as hard for Barack Obama as you have for me,'' Clinton said. "I have served in the Senate with him for four years. I have been in this campaign with him for 16 months. I have stood on the stage and gone toe-to-toe with him in 22 debates. I've had a front-row seat to his candidacy, and I have seen his strength and determination, his grace and his grit.''

"I want to take all our energy and all our strength and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama as our next president of the United States,'' Clinton said.

Most in the crowd roared their approval when Clinton mentioned Obama's name, though there were boos and jeers from the upper levels of the three-tiered room. Several of Clinton's supporters tried to drown out those boos by clapping louder.

Throughout the campaign, Clinton steered away from presenting her candidacy in historic terms or in the context of the feminist movement. But not on Saturday. The theme was emphasized almost from the start of the speech to the emotional parting tableau where she raised the hands of her daughter, Chelsea, and her mother, Dorothy Rodham.

"Now, think how much progress we've already made,'' she said. "When we first started, people everywhere asked the same questions. Could a woman really serve as commander in chief? Well, I think we answered that one. Could an African-American really be our president? And Sen. Obama has answered that one.''

Clinton was as relaxed and expansive as she has been at any point on the campaign trail. In talking about all the reasons she thought Democrats should rally around Obama, she even lapsed into a preacher's cadence, ending each refrain with "and that's why we need to elect Barack Obama our president.''

She even embraced Obama's campaign theme, grinning broadly as she said: "It is this belief, this optimism that Sen. Obama and I share and that has inspired so many millions of our supporters to make their voices heard. So today I am standing with Sen. Obama to say: 'Yes, we can!' ''

Yet the most intense and passionate moments of the speech came when Clinton was talking about breaking barriers and the historic role that both she and Obama have played in an election that was a competition between an African-American and a woman and that is almost certain to end in August with the first African-American nominee by a major party for the White House.

"Together, Sen. Obama and I achieved milestones essential to our progress as a nation, part of our perpetual duty to form a more perfect union,'' she said. "Now, on a personal note, when I was asked what it means to be a woman running for president, I always gave the same answer, that I was proud to be running as a woman, but I was running because I thought I'd be the best president. But I am a woman and, like millions of women, I know there are still barriers and biases out there, often unconscious, and I want to build an America that respects and embraces the potential of every last one of us.''

Obama, who watched the speech on a computer over the Internet while relaxing and spending time with his family in Chicago, paid particular tribute to that message in a statement thanking her for her support.

"I honor her today for the valiant and historic campaign she has run,'' he said. "She shattered barriers on behalf of my daughters and women everywhere, who now know that there are no limits to their dreams.''

By late afternoon, Obama's campaign had posted a "Thank You Senator Clinton'' headline on its home page, inviting viewers to click to give their names and e-mail addresses to thank Clinton - not incidentally expanding Obama's considerable bank of e-mail addresses in the process.

There were never discussions about Obama attending the event in Washington, Obama aides said, because they did not want to detract from Clinton's day.

And the day belonged to Clinton alone.

Friends and associates said they expect Clinton to throw herself into campaigning for Obama, though she will work to thank her own supporters, donors and staff members (she has already hand-written several notes of gratitude). That she spoke of her campaign as "suspended'' and not ended, was merely a legality; she cannot declare it done if she wishes to be able to pay off her campaign debts in the months leading up to the convention. In the near-term, Clinton will return to the Senate and immerse herself in signature issues such as health care. and renew acquaintances with her adopted home state of New York. She will resist the inevitable questions about whether she'll run again for president - which, given who she is, will continue to be a subtext for how many people view her every move.

"She has always hunkered down after adversity,'' said Don Fowler, a longtime friend of the Clintons and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee. "And she's always come back.''

But for Saturday, Clinton's speech was the star, and the room held a whiff of something momentous at hand. "This was all just amazing to be here for,'' said Anne Williams, a middle school history teacher from Suitland, Maryland. She wore an oversized "Hillary for Pope'' button on her lapel.