On to November: Obama clinches Democratic nomination

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., listens to a question from the audience during a town meeting at Westerville Central High School in Westerville, Ohio, on March 2, 2008. On the strength of a primary victory in Montana and a slew of superdelegates’ endorsements, Obama clinched the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination Tuesday night. (AP photo/Paul Vernon)

The slight could be remedied Saturday, when Clinton is expected to announce support for Obama and call on Democrats to unite against McCain, who locked up the Republican nomination when former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee withdrew from the race in March.

Clinton’s move to formally declare that she is backing the Illinois senator came after Democratic congressional colleagues made clear they had no stomach for a protracted intraparty battle.

Hours after Obama sealed the nomination, Democrats coalesced around his candidacy. Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean and the Democratic congressional leadership released a statement urging the party to rally behind Obama, and several lawmakers endorsed their Illinois colleague.

On a private conference call with impatient congressional supporters that included longtime political patron U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., Clinton was urged to draw a close to the contentious campaign, or at least express support for Obama.

“We pledged to support her to the end,” Rangel told The New York Times. “Our problem is not being able to determine when the hell the end is.”

It appears the end has arrived. The Times reported Thursday that one Clinton aide 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 Mrs. Clinton’s house for a farewell celebration.”

Clinton’s candidacy appeared all but indestructible when it began Jan. 20, 2007, armed with celebrity, a prodigious fundraising network, a battle-tested campaign team and a husband who was a popular two-term former president.

But in Obama, she faced an opponent who appeared perfectly suited to the time — a charismatic newcomer who had opposed the Iraq war from the beginning, in contrast to her vote for the legislation that authorized military force there — and who offered voters a compelling message of change.

“In the beginning, people were unsure of Senator Obama,” Jason Rae, a superdelegate from Wisconsin who endorsed Obama in February, told The New York Times. “But as they continued to see primary after primary, and him excelling, and him attracting all these new voters, I think the superdelegates really started feeling more comfortable with him.”

Her fortunes soared and plunged erratically: She was up in Nevada, down in South Carolina. Then, after a roughly even finish on Super Tuesday Feb. 5, she suffered a string of unanswered losses that put Obama so far ahead in the delegate hunt that all the big-state victories she piled up couldn’t close the delegate gap.

Her options limited, Clinton adopted the persona of a tenacious fighter for the middle class, powering through primaries in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, West Virginia and Kentucky and showing grit that earned her valuable political currency with white men, blue-collar workers, socially conservative Democrats and older women.

How Clinton plans to spend that currency remains to be seen. She and her advisers have stopped short of describing the expected announcement of support as a formal endorsement, saying instead she will congratulate Obama for gathering enough delegates to clinch, a step she had planned to take Tuesday night but instead delayed.

Many have questioned the reason for the delay. Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson said the event will be held Saturday “to accommodate more of Senator Clinton’s supporters who want to attend.”

U.S. Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., a Clinton supporter, said an immediate announcement by Clinton that she was suspending campaign operations and supporting Obama would have been divisive.

“Going out [Tuesday] night and simply saying it was over would not have resulted in the unity that we all wanted,” McGovern told The Boston Globe.

More than half of Democrats think the long primary battle hurt their party’s November chances, according to the CBS News poll.