We finally have a candidate. Lets the games begin.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/07/clinton.unity/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton said Saturday "we need to do all we can" to help elect Sen. Barack Obama the next president of the United States.

"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 for the Democratic presidential nomination during a speech at the National Building Museum in Washington.

"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."

Earlier, she said "this isn't exactly the party I planned, but I surely like the company and 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]"

"I will continue to stand strong with you ... the dreams we share are worth fighting for," she added.

Clinton's campaign tells CNN that 6,000 people signed up on the New York senator's Web site to attend the speech.

"To all those who voted for me, my commitment to you is unyielding. You have inspired and touched me. You have humbled me with your commitment," she said. "Eighteen million of you from all walks of life -- women, and men, young and old, Latino and Asian, African-American and Caucasian, rich and poor, middle class, gay and straight ... you have stood with me," she said.

Obama did not attend the event. He will spend Saturday in Chicago, Illinois.

A CNN poll released Friday shows that the party is divided after a primary season that stretched over nearly 18 months and 57 contests.

Sixty percent of Clinton supporters said they would vote for Obama, but 17 percent said they would vote for Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee and Obama's rival in the general election. Nearly one-quarter, 22 percent, said they would not vote at all if Clinton were not the Democrats' nominee.

The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 7.5 percentage points. The poll was conducted after Obama clinched the Democratic nomination Tuesday.

Watch Clinton's speech on CNN.com Live at noon Saturday.

The primary battle created enormous enthusiasm among Democrats. The two candidates split nearly 36 million votes between them, easily shattering records for the number of voters who turned out for the Democratic primary season.

But the primary battles also heightened animosity between the two camps, and the at times bitter battle between Obama and Clinton revealed divisions within the party along race, class, age and gender lines. Video Watch Suzanne Malveaux talk about what's next for the candidates »

Exit polls of Democratic primary voters -- especially in swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania -- showed that Clinton's supporters were more likely to be white, working-class, older and less educated than the voters who backed Obama. Clinton also did better with Latino voters.

The question for Clinton is whether she can persuade her supporters to back Harvard-educated Obama, the first African-American to head a major party ticket.

Clinton has vowed to do whatever she could "to ensure that Democrats take the White House back and defeat John McCain," and her efforts to reach out to woman and blue-collar voters -- groups with which she handily beat Obama -- may be crucial if the Democrats are to take back the White House.

Democratic voters appear to like an Obama-Clinton ticket. A CNN poll released Friday suggested that nearly half of Democrats, 54 percent, would support a joint ticket, but 43 percent would oppose it. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

The Clinton camp made it widely known that she would accept the No. 2 slot if it were offered, but the push was viewed as putting undue pressure on Obama to pick his former rival.

Obama said Thursday that "everybody needs to settle down" and let the vetting process run its course.

So what do you guys think about the Obama/Clinton ticket? Bad idea? I think Obama has to do it.

Picking Clinton would be political suicide - inviting the Clintons back into the whitehouse would cause the weakened republican party to circle the wagons for November (something they might not do as effectively without Clinton on the ticket).

Also - giving Clinton power will most certainly undermine Obama's authority and his legacy. It would also go against his position that there is a need for change in Washington. Selecting a VP candidate who has, along with her husband, been in control of the Democratic party for well over a decade, would show he was embracing the old ways of politics instead of blazing a new trail.

Finally - just look at the picture on the front page of cnn.com -


There appears to be smoke in back of her and what looks like a face in the smoke! Is she the devil?

[Edited by - oasisbu on 06-07-2008 3:36 PM]

Posted by Silverfuel:

So what do you guys think about the Obama/Clinton ticket? Bad idea? I think Obama has to do it.

Yea you do it if your looking for a Rethug to be in the White House come next January.

Posted by Silverfuel:

If it happens it will be purely political. She controls too many votes and if 30% of those votes go over to McCain, Obama will lose this election. With all the corruption, DA's and republican Judges Karl Rove put in office this will be a close election. The results will be manufactured by the republican controlled machine and it would be risky for the Democratic Party to leave anything to chance.

Maybe but Obama's already slightly ahead now (2 to 6 points depending on the poll). I could follow that reasoning if he were trailing and desperately needed Clinton's voters just to make it a tight race, but that's not the case.