By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington : Hillary Clinton Saturday finally ended her quest for the White House and endorsed former rival Barack Obama’s historic run to become the first black president of the United States.
“I endorse him and throw my full support behind him. And I ask all of you to join me in working as hard for Barack Obama as you have for me,” the former first lady told a cheering crowd in Washington four days after she lost the Democratic party nomination to Obama.
Clinton ended her own history-making run to be the first woman chief executive shortly after noon at a rally in the National Museum Building, where she and her husband Bill Clinton celebrated his presidential victories in 1992 and 1996.
“We need to do all we can” to help elect Obama the next US president, she said wistfully noting that “this isn’t exactly the party I planned but I surely like the company.”
But “the way, 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,” she said of her former rival.
“Today, as I suspend my campaign, I congratulate him on the victory he has won and the extraordinary race he has run. I endorse him and throw my full support behind him. And I ask all of you to join me in working as hard for Barack Obama as you have for me.”
“I want to start today by saying how grateful I am to all of you … to all those women in their 80s and their 90s born before women who could vote who cast their votes [this year],” she told her supporters who gave her a record 17 million votes during the five-month long primaries.
“I will continue to stand strong with you… the dreams we share are worth fighting for,” she added.
Obama who had a private meeting with Clinton Thursday night in a bid to win her endorsement did not attend the event Saturday. But his campaign said her concession speech was “very generous”.
Clinton’s campaign said 6,000 people signed up on the New York senator’s website to attend the speech.