by James Oliphant
She came. They wept. She conceded.
The medicine did not go down easy.
More than 2,000 of Hillary Clinton's supporters showed up at the cavernous National Building Museum in Washington today to watch the senator deliver the address they had to have been dreading for months, even as they wanted to fervently believe it would not happen.
Clinton announced she was quitting her campaign and she threw her full support behind presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. Her pronouncement was greeted with a mixture of cheers and shouts of disappointment.
The event had been billed as a coming together of the Clinton and Obama camps, but there were few Obama supporters to be found.
One die-hard Clinton supporter, Jan Mundo, who rode down in a bus from New York with 50 others Saturday, said she would vote for Obama, but only because that was Clinton's directive.
"We'll do what she wants," Mundo said. "She's asked us to do this for her."
She said that "many of us remain suspicious of how the election was won."
Clinton arrived shortly after noon on Saturday accompanied by the former President Clinton, their daughter Chelsea, and her mother Dorothy Rodham.
She said that although she was ending her campaign for president, she would keep fighting for the "18 million of you from all walks of life" who voted for her in the Democratic primaries. "The dreams we share are worth fighting for."
It was perhaps 10 minutes before she mentioned Obama by name and even as she enthusiastically endorsed him, it felt, temporarily at least, as if the air had been sucked out of the room. "I ask you to work as hard for Barack Obama as you have for me," she said. The response was tepid.
She called the Democratic Party "a family" and urged her supporters to ensure that Obama is elected in November. "We cannot let this moment slip away," she said. Her husband did not address the crowd.
But Clinton best connected with the gathering when she completed the political business and switched back to the personal, reflecting on her 16-month journey as the first viable female presidential candidate in history.
"Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it," she said. "And the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time. That has always been the history of progress in America."
She asked her supporters not to look at her defeat with bitterness.
"Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward," she said. "Life is too short, time is too precious, and the stakes are too high."
Her words left many in the crowd in tears. And the faces of her most dedicated backers, middle-aged and older women, looked haunted, crest-fallen. One, with a sharply-cut, short gray hair, sobbed uncontrollably, her back against the wall of the museum for support. And it was difficult not to feel that a moment was indeed passing.
Clinton's speech was held in one of the most famous spaces in Washington, the National Building Museum, a dramatic, soaring space of Italian Renaissance Revival design. Her supporters were packed on the second and third levels as well as the ground floor, giving the event the feel of a spectacle in a colosseum.
The Great Hall has played host to several inaugural balls and a presidential seal is emblazoned into the floor near the south entrance. The irony could not have been lost on Clinton, who came closer to the presidency than any woman in history but also managed to surrender the prize that once looked hers for the taking.
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Comments
Isn't the title just a bit too dramatic? I mean, you make it sound like she's going to quit the Senate, go home and slit her wrists in a tub of warm water. Don't count her out of anything. Her ambition knows no bounds.
Posted by: John W. | June 7, 2008 4:24 PM
Regardless of whether you are a Clinton or Obama supporter, each should be very proud of their candidate.
The Democratic Party was fortunate to have two very good candidates running for president at the end. Both candidates are flawed in many ways but still very good.
As an Obama supporter I was very pleased that Hillary stayed in to the end and made sure that Obama was subjected to the scrutiny that the Republicans would have inevitably brought to him. He needed this fight.
My suggestion to the people is for all of us to set aside our personal feelings and focus on the candidate who best represents the interests of the people of this country.
We should each ask ourselves these questions.
Who will appoint judges that will protect our individual liberties from government intrusion and make sure we all have due process under the law?
Who will forward a foreign policy that protects our people at home and forwards our interests abroad in the best possible manner?
Who will present the best solutions to the many economic problems we face?
Who will present the most forward thinking energy policy to satisfy the needs of the American people?
These are just a few of the questions our country faces going forward.
Whether you think the correct person is Barack Obama or John McCain please make your decision based on issues. That is where each candidate will ultimately affect the lives of us all.
Please do not vote for someone just because you connect to them as a peer or vote against someone because you don't connect to them as a peer. In the big picture, this is not important. You're voting for President of the US not best friend.
Also, do not vote against a candidate out of spite because your candidate did not win or you feel your candidate was treated poorly. This is a fight for the highest office in the country, it is going to get ugly and someone is going to lose.
Please focus on what is truly important.
Posted by: Jason L. Block | June 7, 2008 4:27 PM
Careful! She did not concede, and is not closing her campaign. She only glorified herself, and left the strong impression that she should rightfully be the nominee. Bama must be wary of trusting this treacherous woman and her deceitful husband.
Posted by: Antietam | June 7, 2008 4:35 PM
I don't see how we can be expected to get behind Obama. His character hasn't changed, his association with people of questionable character hasn't changed, and as far as I am concerned my reasons for not voting for him in the first place has not changed. As much as I adore Hillary and all that she stands for I cannot go against my instincts and vote for someone just because she has to endorse him as a staunch Democrat. No, I will not vote for Obama. And I ask Hillary's supporters to think about why they chose not to vote for him in the first place and examine those reasons before they blindly vote the way they are being told to vote.
Posted by: RFB | June 7, 2008 4:58 PM
Good coverage. I'm one of her very sad and disappointed supporters- what a lovely speech she gave! What a lady who showed us that a girl doesn't have to stand aside for a boy and can stand up to the worst ridicule and school-yard taunts, especially from "grown-up" media pundits, male and even some gleeful women, who definitely should know better! Now I'll follow her guidance to move forward and help to put a democrat in the White House.
Posted by: Allison Boelter | June 7, 2008 5:11 PM
Well, everyone expects Hillary's supporters to be gracious and go all out for Obama. But if the situation were reversed, would they? No, they would go on spewing the same hate and disrespect, probably doubling in intensity. I will not vote for Obama, only because I think he is a seriously flawed candidate. I think eventually we will learn some seriously detrimental stuff about him.
Posted by: Shiloh | June 7, 2008 5:35 PM
She didn't quit - she just put it on hold. The Dems are still holding their breath. She put up with that shame of a marriage to BILL CLINTON so she has a chance at the presidency. After she divorces BILL CLINTON, maybe she'll come into her own. But until she parts ways, no way will she be electable. BILL CLINTON even put her current office re-election chances in jeopardy. Go going BILL CLINTON!
Posted by: David | June 7, 2008 5:45 PM
I was kinda hoping she'd do what John (the first post) said.
Posted by: Reality | June 7, 2008 5:55 PM
RFB,
I would ask you to think about the candidate who will forward policies that best represent the interests of this country before you disregard Obama this fall.
The reality is that if you are in Chicago politics you have to associate yourself with a few unsavory characters. No one gets out of this city clean.
I find it easy to disregard Wright, Pfleger and Ayers because I believe Obama has the right mindset when it comes to solving the problems of this country.
Once again it is the policies not the person that counts in the end.
To find the perfect example you have to go no farther than Hillary's husband, Bill Clinton. I consider the man morally repugnant in so many ways but I would have happily voted for him a 3rd time if possible simply because I thought he had the right policies and ran the government effectively.
If you truly believe John McCain is closer to Hillary Clinton than Barack Obama on the issues and can logically justify that argument then by all means vote for McCain.
Just make sure it is for the right reasons.
Posted by: Jason L. Block | June 7, 2008 6:10 PM
now thar she has proven that for a female to be elected president, she has to be married to a president first, I say michelle obama in 2016.
Posted by: Vinny Finlandia | June 7, 2008 6:44 PM
now thar she has proven that for a female to be elected president, she has to be married to a president first, I say michelle obama in 2016.
Posted by: Vinny Finlandia | June 7, 2008 6:55 PM
Her CARING knows no bounds. Supporting and working for obama because HILLARY TOLD ME TO, because you like the guy or because you realize bush co has got to go.
Does the reason matter?
Posted by: geraldinetoo | June 7, 2008 7:29 PM
James, I think the meaning of my statement was misinterpreted in your article: I said that a teeny, tiny crack had opened after Hillary's speech where I would even consider supporting Obama, and only because she'd requested it. Like many lifelong Dems, although I've never voted Republican in 40 years, I'm so angry at "my Party" that the differences Hillary mentioned pale in comparison, and a protest vote for McCain is still a possibility. For many of us, that vote has nothing to do with losing and everything to do with the repeated despicable treatment of our candidate and voters by the DNC, Obama and the mainstream media without a peep from any of them, FL and MI stinky rulings, 30 RBC members disenfranchising 2.3 million voters, caucus shenanigans, the DNC choosing to support the markedly less qualified candidate, and much, much more. Either choice has potentially difficult consequences, and many supporters are reserving judgment.
Posted by: Jan Mundo | June 9, 2008 2:42 AM