CNN, The New York Times, and others are reporting that Hillary will announce the suspension of her campaign on Saturday.
CNN has a pdf of the letter she sent to her supporters announcing the, erm, announcement.
I’m so glad that she has decided to do this graciously. Watching her speech on Tuesday night, I thought she was about to endorse Obama; I was pretty stunned when she said she wouldn’t make any decisions that night. Now I feel like maybe I’m giving her credit for more grace than she’s actually shown because the threats for continuing the fight were so awful. I suspect just a few days from now, though, I’ll be happy to hear that she’ll be Obama’s running mate.
I don’t know if I would call her exit gracious. In fact, according to the reports I heard, she didn’t decide to concede until her own people and supporters in Congress told her to get out — now.
I don’t even know what to say about the speech Hillary gave. No concession, and, in fact, she gave what almost amounted to a victory speech, with her graciously thanking Obama for his participation in the campaign and failing to acknowledge his victory in any way. And for all her talk of party unity, she basically egged on her supporters to keep fighting for her candidacy.
I don’t think Obama will pick a running mate for a while, and, although it’s certainly possible, I’m hoping he doesn’t choose Hillary. I think adding her to the ticket is a mistake — one, because it would conflict with his overall theme of change, and two, because she (and Bill) likely would attempt undermine his presidency. I’ve heard some murmurings of putting retiring Sen. Chuck Hagel — yes, a Republican — on the ticket with Obama, and it made me giddy. I advocated that Kerry do something similar with McCain in 2004 (if only he had listened).
I also heard that Hillary might have to decline VP anyway because the vetting process could reveal some problems with donations to the Clinton library.
You’re right, the whole thing could have been a lot more graceful. I’m just ridiculously glad that she’s not taking it to Denver, which would be akin to handing McCain the presidency.
I’ve been reading those lists of who Obama might pick, and I’m just not very excited about any of the possibilities. I hate to think, though, that the Clintons would be that vindictive.
I have always been a die hard republican, but i may just not vote in the presidential contest (i’ll vote all my other races). Pres. McCain wouldn’t be that far from a Democrat. My party is broken. So sad 🙁