Clinton to end nomination bid and endorse Obama

Saturday rally to promote unity, aides say

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will endorse Senator Barack Obama on Saturday, bringing a close to her 17-month campaign for the White House, aides said. Her decision came after Democrats urged her Wednesday to leave the race and allow the party to coalesce around Obama.

Howard Wolfson, one of Clinton's chief strategists, and other aides said she would express support for Obama and party unity at an event in Washington that day. One adviser said Clinton would concede defeat, congratulate Obama and proclaim him the party's nominee, while pledging to do what was needed to assure his victory in November.

Her decision came after a day of conversations with supporters on Capital Hill about her future now that Obama had clinched the nomination. Clinton had, in a speech after Tuesday night's primaries, suggested she wanted to wait before deciding about her future, but in conversations Wednesday, her aides said, she was urged to step aside.

"We pledged to support her to the end," Representative Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat who has been a patron of Clinton since she first ran for the Senate, said in an interview. "Our problem is not being able to determine when the hell the end is."

Clinton's decision came as some of her most prominent supporters — including former Vice President Walter Mondale — announced they were now backing Obama. "I was for Hillary — I wasn't against Obama, who I think is very talented," Mondale said. "I'm glad we made a decision and I hope we can unite our party and move forward."

One of Clinton's aides said they were told that except for her senior advisers, there was no reason to report to work after Friday, and that they were invited to Clinton's house for a farewell celebration. The announcement from Clinton was moved to Saturday to accommodate more supporters who wanted to attend, aides said.

"Senator Clinton will be hosting an event in Washington, DC, to thank her supporters and express her support for Senator Obama and party unity," Wolfson said.

Obama, not waiting for a formal concession from Clinton, announced a three-member vice-presidential selection committee that will include Caroline Kennedy, who has become a close personal adviser since endorsing him four months ago.

With some Democrats promoting Clinton as Obama's No. 2, his aides said they would move slowly in the search, allowing passions from the bruising primary battles to cool.

Obama and Clinton crossed paths briefly in Washington on Wednesday, but aides said they did not linger long enough to discuss the unfinished business hanging over them. As he left the Capitol, Obama told reporters: "We're going to have a conversation in the coming weeks."

Obama appeared before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, where, tacking to the right, he described a far tougher series of sanctions he would be willing to impose on Iran than he had outlined during the campaign.

Clinton, during an earlier appearance there, moved to reassure an audience clearly nervous about Obama's views on Israeli security. "I know that Senator Obama will be a good friend to Israel," she said.

Turning to the general election battle, Senator John McCain of Arizona, Obama's likely opponent, and Obama both said they were interested in holding a series of debates this summer.

Aides to Obama and Clinton said that at least some of Clinton's fund-raisers would move to join the Obama campaign. Still, with the realization of defeat still settling in, it appeared that most of her major financial backers were holding back until they got a clearer signal from Clinton of her intentions.

"I'm being aggressively courted by folks in the Obama campaign," said Mark Aronchick, a Philadelphia lawyer, who is a national finance co-chairman. "I've told them all, 'Everybody relax. Take a deep breath. There's time enough here.' "

On Thursday, Obama planned to head to the southwestern tip of Virginia, the heart of Appalachia, to begin courting voters in a state that traditionally goes Republican, but could be a fall battleground. Then, Obama intends to take a few days away from his public schedule to strategize privately about the general election campaign.

Clinton's decision to suspend her campaign, which was first reported by ABC News, was a bow to the emerging political reality. No one in her campaign — including by all reports Clinton herself — saw a viable road to the nomination. A suspension of the campaign allows her to continue raising money and pay off millions of dollars in debt.

The desire of the party for Clinton to leave the race was signaled — if politely — as four top Democratic leaders issued an early morning statement asking all uncommitted delegates to make their decisions by Friday. The statement from the Democratic chairman, Howard Dean, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Harry Reid and Governor Joe Manchin of West Virginia, stopped short of endorsing Obama, but aides said they were likely to move in that direction if Clinton lingered in the race.

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