"This isn't the party I planned but I sure like the company," Hillary said as she opened her concession speech at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC.

Speaking to the "18 million...all walks of life," who voted for her, Hillary congratulated and endorsed Barack Obama, stating:

"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."

In an unequivocal endorsement, Hillary Clinton framed electing Barack Obama president as making "a stronger America." I understand the RNC has released a long list of Hillary's criticisms of Barack from over the course of the primary. With her strong words of support for Barack Obama today, Hillary Clinton has begun to (try to) relegate those prior comments into the dustbin of history.

What did you think?

Update [2008-6-7 13:28:50 by Todd Beeton]:The music playing at the speech sounds like the same soundtrack played at most of her speeches except for an interesting addition, which was playing as she left the stage: "We Are Family" by Sister Sledge.

Update [2008-6-7 13:37:9 by Todd Beeton]:Hillary Clinton in her speech today: "I will work my heart out to make sure that Senator Obama is our next president and I hope and pray that all of you will join me in that effort." I don't think it's an understatement to say she knocked this speech out of the park.

Update [2008-6-7 13:46:48 by Josh Orton]: Clinton is still in the building, shaking hands and thanking her supporters, well after her speech concluded.

Update [2008-6-7 13:54:8 by Todd Beeton]:Terry McCauliffe on Hillary as VP: "Personally I'd love it but we don't want to put pressure, it's Senator Obama's decision but if he doesn't pick her we're all going to work as hard as we can for Senator Obama."

Update [2008-6-7 14:7:49 by Todd Beeton]:Pat Buchanan on Hillary as VP: "If I were Barack Obama's guys and I was looking for a Vice Presidential nominee I'd say let's look at that speech again." OK, it's Pat Buchanan, but I bet a lot of people are thinking that right about now.

John King on CNN: "Expect a very positive address from Senator Clinton. Don't just look for her to endorse Barack Obama but look for her to enthusiastically make the case of why it is so important that her supporters to get behind Barack Obama." Also, "Senator Clinton will make the case of why it is so important for Democrats now to come together and take the campaign against John McCain into the fall."

6,000 tickets were distributed online to attend Clinton's speech today.

Anyone else think it's funny that the cable news networks are stalking Hillary Clinton's home to get the shot of her leaving for the National Building Museum?

Update [2008-6-7 12:0:34 by Todd Beeton]:Some more speculation about what to expect from Hillary Clinton's speech from Richard Wolff on MSNBC: "I suspect that...what really matters here is that this is a call for Democratic unity. She has to show some leadership in taking her supporters to the issues that are at the heart of Obama's agenda, to say their issues and his issues are the same and that's why they should work together."

Update [2008-6-7 12:10:6 by Todd Beeton]:If you're not at a TV, CNN.com will be streaming the speech live. The speech is not expected to start before 12:30pm EDT at this point. From the cable networks' SUV cam at casa Clinton, the Clintons haven't left their house yet.

Update [2008-6-7 12:18:14 by Todd Beeton]:OK, I think I'm going to have to go back to CNN. Keith just asked Timmeh whether Al Gore's concession speech is the model of the modern day concession and Tim of course pretended that the US would have ceased to exist as we'd known it had Al Gore challenged George W. Bush instead of conceded to him. "One of the most extraordinarily gracious comments in American political history, absolutely. What could have happened on that day if Vice President Gore hadn't been so magnanimous in understanding the need to unite the country." Umm, pray tell, Tim, what exactly would have happened? Christ. How does Keith talk to this guy with a straight face? See ya MSNBC.

Update [2008-6-7 12:26:39 by Josh Orton]: Things aren't much better on CNN. Instead of going over the same conventional wisdom again and again, would it kill cable news networks to maybe find some Hillary Clinton supporters and interview them about how she inspired them? Or how Clinton brought them into the political process? Probably don't have the resources for that. Better to stick with the stakeout of Clinton's house and pointless banter with the same pundits saying nothing useful.

Update [2008-6-7 12:32:28 by Todd Beeton]:Breaking: the Clintons are on the move.

Update [2008-6-7 12:32:28 by Todd Beeton]:The rehabilitation of Bill Clinton in the media is underway. Wolf Blitzer has been asking what Bill Clinton's role in the upcoming election will be and the consensus is that he is uniquely able to appeal to certain segments of the population and has a unique skill at framing issues that could help Barack Obama in the fall, but clearly he will not be nearly as visible in the general as he was in the primary. I like that Wolf asked Donna Brazille why she and Al Gore decided not to use him more in 2000 and she said "We used him strategically to turn out the base...We saw in our polling that Al Gore needed to appeal to independents and Bill Clinton had lost some support among independents."

Now, I was a huge supporter of Hillary, and am a huge supporter of all of the Clintons. I went to the Baruch victory rally and shook every one of the Clinton's hands, and got my ticket signed by them all. However, it is clear that this contest is over, and Obama will be the nominee come the vote in August. I believe Hillary put off an out and out concession because her supporters were so dedicated, but are so angry, disillusioned, and feel cheated that endorsing Obama Tuesday would have been too much for her supporters to handle. They needed time to get over this, after absorbing it, and going thru the 7 stages. Saturday, she will endorse Barack Obama. Now, Hillary is not the only one to concede days after the last contest.

After Florida, everyone was waiting for Mitt Romney to drop out, and he did it the next week at CPAC. Now, we all laugh at Mitt Romney, and rightfully so. He is and was so obviously the fakest politician we have ever seen in our lives, not to mention the biggest flip flop who spent an insane amount of his kids inheritance to lose. However, when he suspended his campaign at CPAC in February, he gave a great concession speech there. he spoke to a friendly audience, thanked them for their participation, and bashed the his party's opposition but went out with grace. He spoke with passion as well, which helps to fire up supporters. How, Hillary won't be speaking to anything close to CPAC in terms of a liberal counterpart, but she will be talking to many angry and sad supporters just as Romney did to CPAC, who didn't like McCain. We are more united on the issues than the GOP was, but Romney did his damn best to try to help coalece his base around to McCain. He goes out and shows himself all over for TV at every turn to support John McCain. This is what Hillary needs to do for Barack. The Dems on our side may take a while to come back to Barack, but a good speech can help a lot. We are still pretty divided over personality. Hillary can do what Mitt Romney does, campaigning and spinning anything and everything as hard for Barack as possible, even if she doesn't believe, as Romney does.

Hillary Rodham Clinton just sent the following letter out to all of her supporters:

I wanted you to be one of the first to know: on Saturday, I will hold an event in Washington D.C. to thank everyone who has supported my campaign. Over the course of the last 16 months, I have been privileged and touched to witness the incredible dedication and sacrifice of so many people working for our campaign. Every minute you put into helping us win, every dollar you gave to keep up the fight meant more to me than I can ever possibly tell you.

On Saturday, I will extend my congratulations to Senator Obama and my support for his candidacy. This has been a long and hard-fought campaign, but as I have always said, my differences with Senator Obama are small compared to the differences we have with Senator McCain and the Republicans.

I have said throughout the campaign that I would strongly support Senator Obama if he were the Democratic Party's nominee, and I intend to deliver on that promise.

When I decided to run for president, I knew exactly why I was getting into this race: to work hard every day for the millions of Americans who need a voice in the White House.

I made you -- and everyone who supported me -- a promise: to stand up for our shared values and to never back down. I'm going to keep that promise today, tomorrow, and for the rest of my life.

I will be speaking on Saturday about how together we can rally the party behind Senator Obama. The stakes are too high and the task before us too important to do otherwise.

I know as I continue my lifelong work for a stronger America and a better world, I will turn to you for the support, the strength, and the commitment that you have shown me in the past 16 months. And I will always keep faith with the issues and causes that are important to you.

In the past few days, you have shown that support once again with hundreds of thousands of messages to the campaign, and again, I am touched by your thoughtfulness and kindness.

I can never possibly express my gratitude, so let me say simply, thank you.

Sincerely,

Hillary Rodham Clinton

I've been a very strong critic of Hillary Clinton's campaign tactics, and I was very dismayed by what I heard from her last night.  

Yet, as I see the events unfold today, I want to provide a more generous, positive interpretation of what Hillary is doing and what she really wants.  

Here's my theory - she gave her "victory speech" last night, raised the issue of being VP, threatened to use her 18 million supporters as a bargaining chip, as a clever way to unify rather than divide the party.  She's basically taking one for the team.

Barack Obama gave what I consider to be an overwhelmingly important and gracious speech this evening. He spent a lot of time sincerely praising Hillary Clinton for her personal strength and the strength of her campaign, as well as the groundbreaking nature of her candidacy.

He did this on the night when he might well have expected to have the stage to himself, and didn't. And he did this on a night where he might have expected Hillary Clinton to similarly (and not tepidly) praise him. This showed a tremendous amount of restraint and respect.

He then proceeded to deliver a remarkable framing of the choice between himself and McCain, turning notions of patriotism and fear-mongering on their heads. And he did so in a manner that electrified not only the crowd on hand but a nationwide audience. He announced himself forcefully and eloquently, and talked about a lot of things that supporters of Hillary Clinton are likely to care about.

So, my question dear Clinton supporters (or at least the ones still holding out against Obama)....did this speech do anything to move you to him personally or politically. I hope it did but I am curious to hear some responses.

Cross-posted at The October Protocol.

Clinton, tonight, that is.  Her camp's been sending out mixed signals all day, and the campaigns's message discipline has faltered as of late.  (Which makes perfect sense.  When the campaign ends, Ed Rendell will still be governor of Pennsylvania and Terry McAuliffe will still be Terry McAuliffe.  Harold Ickes and Howard Wolfson are losing prime shots at sick White House status points.  It's not hard to guess why they're sending the signals they are.)

Way I see it, she's got a couple of options.

1) She concedes and endorses.  Most likely to happen if his supposed cache of superdelegates collectively informs her campaign this afternoon or evening.  Against the advice of the most loyal, she congratulates Obama and ends the campaign.  This last detail is important--she has the Nixonesque need to believe she's making the decision alone, in the best interests of something larger, and against the advice of those who are helplessly loyal.

2) More realistically, she "acknowledges" his lead in the pledged delegate race, but holds up the fallacious parallel of her (disputed) lead in that non-metrical metric, the popular vote.  "He's leading in one metric, I am in the other."  This will allow her to justify suspending, instead of ending, her campaign, and her non-endorsement of Obama.  Sadly, this will mean that she needs an excuse to keep going--fundraising and paying off debt and all that--so she'll probably trot out her appeal of the MI/FL decision to the Credentials Committee and suggest that she's waiting for superdelegates to stab Obama by switching to her at the last minute.  (Which, of course, they are technically free to do.)

3) She ignores Obama's passing the threshold, delcares Paul "General Bethlehem" Villarreal (my nickname, not his) her new campaign manager, and declares Stage III of the campaign: All Out War.  On to Denver!  You'll pry this nomination from my cold dead hands!  Did you know Obama is a muslim crackhead who got head from a male hooker in the back of a limousine?

Throwing the coins in accordance with Protocol guidance reveals Option 2 as most likely.  It's tough to give up the dream.  She'll use any argument she has, no matter how tenuous.  It seems obvious to most observers that, should she continue, her chances of wresting the nomination from Obama are tiny while those of torpedoing the party are huge.  But ambition and isolation work strange effects on highly public figures whose power plays work out across vast canvasses.  To succeed at the level Clinton has succeeded at requires a kind of doublethink, a comfort with cognitive dissonance: you've got to convince yourself first, even if all external indications point against you.  I will be the nominee.  

Before Clinton concedes to Obama, she'll have to concede to herself.