WASHINGTON — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton officially ended her presidential campaign Saturday with a forceful promise to help elect Sen. Barack Obama — and the declaration that, even though she had failed to “shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling,” a gender barrier had been crossed.
Four days after Obama secured the delegates to win the Democratic nomination, Clinton gave him her unqualified endorsement, finally putting to rest questions about whether she would help unite the party for the general election.
In generous and, at times, soaring terms, Clinton described her cause as united with Obama’s, saying that electing him would achieve the goals of universal health care, a strong economy and the end of the war in Iraq.
“We may have started on separate journeys, but today, our paths have merged,” Clinton said.
Clinton, who began her candidacy as the overwhelming favorite to win her party’s nomination, discouraged rehashing the long and divisive Democratic primary campaign. She instead asked her supporters to “take our energy, our passion, our strength, and to do all we can to help elect Barack Obama the next president of the United States.”
“When you hear people saying, or think to yourself, ‘if only’ or ‘what if,’ I say — please don’t go there,” Clinton said. “Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward.”
She continued: “Life is too short, time is too precious, and the stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been. We have to work together for what still can be. And that is why I will work my heart out to make sure that Sen. Obama is our next president, and I hope and pray that all of you will join me in that effort.”
It was an emotional end to a year- and-a-half-long effort in which Clinton won more than 17 million votes and dozens of primary contests.
Clinton was met with a deafening roar as she entered the atrium at the National Building Museum, where thousands of supporters gathered for her speech. “Well, this isn’t exactly the party I planned,” she began, smiling broadly.
With her were her daughter, Chelsea; her husband, former President Clinton; and her mother, Dorothy Rodham, who had her 89th birthday three days earlier.
The crowd’s undiminished enthusiasm suggested the challenges facing Obama. Ann Lewis, a longtime Clinton friend and adviser, acknowledged that kind of fidelity “is not switched with the turn of a faucet.”
But Clinton expressed no ambivalence about ending her bid and turning her attention to the fall campaign. Although she did not mention Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, she repeatedly encouraged her supporters to remember why they had worked for her and why Obama would fulfill those same goals. She said nearly a dozen times that it is imperative to “help elect Barack Obama our president.”
And in one of her most passionate descriptions of social progress, Clinton characterized Obama’s success and her own as the result of historic struggles that must continue.
At one point, she said she wanted to talk on “a personal note” and said she identified with women who have faced discrimination in their lives.
“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,” Clinton said.
Clinton, 60, said that her journey will make it easier for other women.
“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. “And that is truly remarkable, my friends.”
For days, Clinton’s intentions were unclear. But Thursday night, she met with Obama at the Washington home of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and on Friday signaled she would endorse him at Saturday’s event.
Saturday, she devoted part of her remarks to remembering her campaign, but that trademark defiance gave way to urging support for Obama.
After Clinton’s speech, Obama issued a statement thanking her and praising her “valiant and historic campaign.”
“She shattered barriers on behalf of my daughters and women everywhere, who now know that there are no limits to their dreams,” he said. “And she inspired millions with her strength, courage and unyielding commitment to the cause of working Americans. Our party and our country are stronger because of the work she has done throughout her life, and I’m a better candidate for having had the privilege of competing with her in this campaign.”
