Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has thrown her full support behind Senator Barack Obama, as she unequivocally endorsed the Democratic White House nominee and vowed to do all she could to make her former foe president.
Clinton’s quest to be the first woman commander in chief ended on Saturday with her imploring her backers to vote for Obama, saying he was a man of “grace and grit” who was, like her, tilting at history after living the American dream.
“The way to continue our fight now, to accomplish the goals for which we stand is to take our energy, our passions, our strengths and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama the next president of the United States,” Clinton said, basking in the devotion of around 2,000 supporters at a raucous rally.
“Today, as I suspend my campaign, I congratulate him on the victory he has won and the extraordinary race he has run,” said Clinton, who angered some Democrats with her defiant tone after Obama clinched the nomination last week.
Obama, vying to become the first African-American president in US history, welcomed her endorsement and paid tribute to her “valiant and historic” campaign.
“No one knows better than Senator Clinton how desperately America and the American people need change, and I know she will continue to be in the forefront of that battle this fall and for years to come,” Obama said in a statement.
Although he did not address whether he would pick Clinton for his vice-presidential running mate, Obama said he was “thrilled and honored to have Senator Clinton’s support.”
Obama now faces a tough fight against Republican nominee Senator John McCain after the turbulent Democratic contest which has torn at party unity.
Clinton gave a ringing endorsement of Obama in a gracious speech in Washington’s ornate National Building Museum, which positioned her as a historic figure who shattered gender barriers.
Clinton borrowed Obama’s “yes we can!” mantra and repeatedly told her army of faithful, 18 million supporters that they must put her former rival in the White House.
“I have seen his strength and determination and his grace and his grit. In his own life, Barack Obama has lived the American dream,” she said, after her endorsement was met with cheers, and some loud but scattered boos.
She went out of her way to persuade her supporters to back Obama, as McCain makes a play for her army of white working-class supporters and women.
“The Democratic Party is a family and now it is time to restore the ties that bind us together and to come together around the ideals we share, the values we cherish and the country we love,” she said.
In a speech that marked the end of an era, with her family shuffling off center stage for the first time in 16 years, Clinton had former president Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea at her side in the museum’s ancient Rome-style Great Hall.
Terry O’Neill, a Clinton supporter from Bethesda, in suburban Maryland, said it was now up to Obama to win over the former first lady’s millions of supporters.
“She earned my support by her leadership on issues important to me,” she said. “I know he is open-minded, he is pro-choice [backs abortion rights] he is a Democrat. Now it is up to him to earn my support.”
Clinton’s constituency of working-class whites, women and Hispanics could play a key role in sending Obama to the White House, expanding his power base of African-Americans, young voters and more affluent Democrats.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was