As an Obama supporter, I didn't mind Hillary staying in the race until the very last primary--heck, it meant that every state that followed the party rules had a voice in the campaign. Some of her attacks were way over the top, but let's hope that's all behind us.

It's now a question of how hard she will work for Obama's election. Lot of discussion about whether she should be on the ticket--and a lot of it centered around placating her and her supporters.

I figure Obama should have a very private chat with her (no Bill around, for sure) and offer her the first Supreme Court seat that opens up. Helluva a lot better job than VP and you apparently are never to old for it. I think Hillary would make an awesome Justice and the opportunity will arise early in an Obama administration, because a couple of the liberals on the bench want to retire.

Thank you, Hillary. Better late than never. Let's proceed with unity and stop the bashing and the blame games. McCain will be a serious challenge and we need every vote to defeat him.

Munir

No way Hillary gets a SCOTUS nomination. There are a lot more deserving folks out there. Talk about placation.

Let's not forget Hillary was a Goldwater Girl at one point. She's too shady.

Uh, Dan, I suppose you never did anything stupid when you were 16? Hillary and I are about the same age and, yes, 44 years ago, we both supported AuH20 in '64. I think a lot of idealistic kids did, given the way the media of the time portrayed LBJ and most other liberals. We wised up before we ever cast a vote.

I voted for Hillary and supported her. I think she would have made a good president, but in the end, she couldn't beat Obama. He is the better candidate and might end up being a great president.

I'm ready to move on, and I hope Hillary will make a graceful exit, and not do anything petty to make me regret my support. Other than softening the blow of losing, I don't see anything that would be gained by placing her on the ticket or giving her a position in an Obama administration.

Consolation prizes are for game show contestants. We've all had the experience of applying for a job we really, really wanted, but didn't get. You just deal with it.

I'm sitting here kind of thinking in the tone of Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller's Day Off... "Corbell...Corbell...Corbell."

i'm hoping for two things now. one, that Hillary is not the veep (and i think with Caroline Kennedy on the selection committee, Obama can avoid that and not anger all but the loonie fringe of HRC supporters).

T.A. come on man. We've got the first black candidate for President of the United States. Think about that. We've got a woman of Hillary Clinton's magnitude who came up just short. She went for the win and I'm not going to sit around and dwell on what she said over the last few months while she was trying to win the nomination. If she ends up becoming the Veep nominee I'm going to start counting down the days until I get to watch her absolutely shred whichever moron John McCain ends up picking in a Veep debate. I'm going to savor every moment of it. Remember Benson vs. Quayle. If you've forgot...

SMACKDOWN

Oh, my, if I were held responsible for the political views I held at age 16...

I agree with T.A.: Clinton needs Obama to win the election to advance her policy agenda. Perhaps one way that Obama and Clinton to move beyond the animosity of the general election would be to start thinking about what sort of legislation our Democratically-controlled Congress might send to a Democratic president.

The country needs an Obama victory this fall! I don't think it's any exaggeration that the first two Bush terms have seriously maimed America and I'm scared to death to contemplate a third. Much more is at stake here than three people's egos.

I've been an Obama supporter since Edwards dropped out. And I appreciate Hillary staying in the race until it was over. For one thing, it meant Oregon's primary actually counted for something this year. In fact, every state's did -- except for Florida and Michigan, who voluntarily gave up their delegates in an ill-conceived effort to jump the line.

Personally, I hope Hillary will campaign hard for Obama. If she does so, I wouldn't mind seeing her as Senate Majority Leader -- no matter who wins the White House in November.

OBAMA SUPPORTERS UNITE! ANYONE WHO DID NOT ENDORSE OBAMA I.E. RON WYDEN, MUST BE DEFEATED. In calling his office to voice this opinion, I'm met with laughs at the thought of his defeat! I offer the following, if Ron were a real Progressive, why didn't he endorse the only anti-war candidate still running for the Presidential election? Hillary's voting record was just like Bush's, war, cluster bombs, Kyle-Lieberman, bankruptcy bill, all against the best interests of the American people. In other words she's a Republican. Candidates like Ron refuse to help the problem with Hillary refusing to leave the race, instead enabled her to continue, RON DID NOTHING! Replace all the this candidates with REAL PROGRESSIVES! No, I don't think O bama is a real Progressive, but since Kucinich is no longer in the race.....

Andrea, I too had hoped Sen. Wyden would come out earlier for Obama. I was writing to Wyden and all our Dem office holders months and months ago urging all of them to do so. But I think he saw the big picture and took a longer and more practical view of the situation.

After Iowa and Super Tuesday, the writing was on the wall that Barack was going to be the nominee. I think Wyden sensed that it was more important to preserve a strong relationship with his fellow Senators, including Senator Clinton who he would be continuing to work with in the Senate. Since Sen. Wyden has some very important legislative proposals, this was critical.

Since Oregon was a fairly easy victory for Barack, I don't think that Sen. Wyden burned any bridges with the Obama camp by staying on the sidelines.

So although it would have been awesome to have Wyden's endorsement earlier, I can't agree with your sentiment to punish him at this point. He is a progressive who has been a strong advocate for the environment and ending the War in Iraq, etc. Sen. Wyden should be judged on his own record and not on the timing of his presidential endorsement.

Wyden did endorse Obama...

http://www.blueoregon.com/2008/06/wyden-calls-sup.html

After hearing so many comments about "fighting this all the way to the convention", it is great to see that Hillary will instead be advancing unity so we can focus on our differences with McCain. This is great news!

Hillary and her supporters waged a tough and hard fought campaign. I can see from this move that she is wiser and cares about our Country more than her critics have given her credit for. Well done!

Over the last 6 mos to a year I have not had any use much for Dean as the Chair of the DNC. I thought his leadership was poor to non-existent and that the Florida -Michigan mess should have been cleaned up before it got to where it is. I also don’t think that the DNC has shown any ability to change with the times. The fact that they still have super-delegates that were appointed to help the Jesse Jackson campaign shows just how out of touch they still are. Not for appointing them - but for keeping them long after there need to be there.

Now for Dean to be calling on Clinton to end her campaign shows just what a jerk he is. Should she end it, probably? Should she end it before all of her delegates are elected, no. Why? Because they were committed and hard working individuals that deserve to be in Denver. Just like to Bema folks do. She can call for unity and withdraw after all the delegate selections are done. That will bring less division to this campaign than to throw them under the bus now during the final delegate seletions.

If Obama “got it” he would step up and say finish the process. I am the guy and I don’t need more victims. Then he would be in a great position to court the support and votes of those individuals while they are all in Denver. They might be more inclined to move over with energy if he shows a gracious attitude towards them now. Before Denver not after.

so sorry for the typos in my post - it is early in the day and this keyboard sucks at home.

Nice trolling by "Andrea in Portland"--"Ron Wyden must be defeated" indeed. Personally, I'm more concerned about defeating Gordo.

I've been regularly frustrated by Hillary this primary, but I'm glad that she's ready to help unify the party and focus on beating McCain. I never really thought she'd take it to Denver; she still has four more years in the Senate to get through, not to mention Bill's legacy to think about. She has some bridges to mend, but this is a very good first step, and if President Obama wants to appoint her as a health care czar, so much the better.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who's wondering where Corbell is. This isn't snark, either; I'd really like to hear his thoughts right now.

I'm glad Hillary's decided to end her campaign. Her campaign fought long and hard. Her negative campaigning might have allowed Obama to address those things early and ahead of the fall campaign.

I'd like to see her as head of Health and Human Services in the Obama administration, if we're going to state our "wish lists"

Candidates like Ron refuse to help the problem with Hillary refusing to leave the race, instead enabled her to continue, RON DID NOTHING! Replace all the this candidates with REAL PROGRESSIVES!

I love writing like this. It reminds me of those bible tracts people hand you on the street. "Do the right thing or BURN IN HELL." It's like they just lift the typing style off a right wing blog.

Ron is becoming a power broker in the Senate. If you had two co-workers going for the same position you wouldn't go and tell all your other co-workers who you wanted to get the promotion. I am completely OK with Wyden waiting until all the primary campaigns are over before offering an endorsement. In hindsight it was the right thing to do.

Commmon Sense and clean living have finally prevailed. Lets bury the preverbial hatchet - not a real one in someone elses head. Anrera needs to take a chill pill and realize it is time to move on and not be so uptight and anal about it.

Grandpa McCain and the repugnicans are the real enemy we should now go forth to defeat.

Barack Obama has the prerogative to select his own team including the vice president just as the white guy nominees have in the past. Clinton is now actively campaigning for the second position through her surrogates. This is not only bad protocol, but if selected, sends a message that Obama is not going to be the leader we expect him to be when he can be dictated to and held hostage by the candidate he defeated. Even today the report is that Hillary Clinton has not yet had the decency to call Barack Obama and tell him that she will be conceding on Saturday: he learned it from the media just as the rest of us did.

However, I don't fear because as someone wrote above Caroline Kennedy is part of the vetting team. The Clintons will not pass muster. Bill Clinton will balk at revealing the details of his business dealings or the names of the donors to his library. Obama's team has said that there is no short or long list now and they don't expect to announce a running mate until at least July. I hope it is late July or early August.

here's my fantasy situation for the new administration:

edwards as veep. hillary clinton as secretary of health. clinton and ron wyden work together to refine his healthcare plan and get it passed, then President Obama will sign it into law.

heh. a girl can dream, can't she? ;-)

Obama/Sebelius vs. McCain/Crist here we come.

First off, don't listen to the initial platitudes of your opponents supporters, because, let's face it, they don't really mean it. They just want your vote for their candidate. Otherwise, they would have supported your candidate.

i know you're disappointed because your candidate lost, but moses, this is short-sighted and wide of the mark. just because we disagreed on who was the strongest candidate for our party in the general (before i switched to obama i was in hrc's camp, and i vigorously supported her here at blueoregon despite being vilified and called a moron, a traitor and a bloodthirsty warmonger), that doesn't mean the only reason we reach out is because we want your vote.

of course we want your vote. but the reaching out, believe it or not, comes because the guy we favored defeated a respected opponent (at least those of us not in the ABC crowd respect her) and we genuinely commiserate with her committed and passionate supporters, who must now come to grips with the fact that hillary will not be the next president of the united states. millions upon millions of people strongly believed she would be the best nominee from the democratic party, but now that the primary brawling is over, hopefully we'll remember that we're all on the same team.

it's not low-brow, slimy vote pandering. it's commiseration, and realization that many of our progressive brothers and sisters are feeling hurt right now. at least that's what it is for me. i can't speak for anyone else.

I too am happy that she's moving on, although I'm flummoxed that she couldn't have been more gracious on Tuesday night. And it was close to reprehensible that her campaign was advocating that the DNC break its owns rules and seat the Michigan and Florida delegations without penalty. That said, having her as the VP candidate could be exciting, although it doesn't seem likely. Next best: I think she'd make a great Attorney General (I think that would be better than a Supreme Court appointment). She could grow in one of the most important cabinet roles and position herself for 2016.

What about Bill Richardson as the VP candidate (I haven't heard his name mentioned, but he seems like he's got the resume and chops)

Obama/Richardson vs. McCain/Romney...but thats for another day.

"What about Bill Richardson as the VP candidate"

I would support that notion. He is the only person whom the North Koreans wouldn't have a extended snit fit over if he went to visit them one day and had a nice 'chat' for fun.

PS--I like Trishka's fantasy situation, with the exception of Edwards as the VP candidate. One of the jobs of the vp is to help the ticket get elected, and, as much as I like John Edwards, the reality is that he wasn't able to help Kerry-Edwards carry his home state in 2004. He'd also be a good Attorney General.

I am so relieved. I truly feared that Clinton might take this to the convention, which would have pretty much ruined our chances in the fall. I've never been so happy to be wrong.

I haven't been pleased with many things about Hillary Clinton of late, but with this decision she regains some of my respect. Thank you, Senator Clinton, for doing the right thing and helping to unite the party.

And thank you, Garrett, for the trip down memory lane. That Quayle smackdown gets better with every viewing...talk about a soundbite!

I'm relieved that she is giving some ground, but I'm not all the way there just yet.

I've not yet seen her actually concede. Suspending her campaign really means not going after it, but it also means not surrendering it either. This, coupled with her making it very clear she is not asking for the VP slot, suggests to me she is basically saying the Presidency will have to be taken from her, not surrendered by her.

Strong, but also not exactly supportive. It leaves me with this sense of denied entitlement that's divisive, if low level.

Don't like the feel of it. Not one bit.

There is also this talk of respect for her voters, as if she commands some entitlement that other losers don't command. Sure, it was a close race, but at the end of the day, we end up with a nominee and everybody else in the party either supporting them, or starting off on their own efforts.

I find this in-between, "something might happen", or more likely, "I need to get something out of this; namely, money at the least!" behavior not ok.

Sorry. I like the Clintons. Have supported them regularly, even when I thought they were not doing things in ways that made sense.

I can't support this. It's claiming something they have no claim to.

I include both because we've seen some statements and behavior out of both of them that resonates this way. Most recently are the request for waivers on elements of the vetting process.

Obama would be nuts to entertain this stuff.

On his win, his night, she denied him legimitacy and that's just not cool. Even if it's hard to come so close, the adult, Statesmen like thing to do, is to suck it up, play your role and build the movement, knowing the people are behind it as fully as they can be.

on Saturday...

Slip your pitful endorsement in under the radar on a Saturday.

Yep, that's party unity.

Obama is gonna lose so badly. I'm predicting that Mccain is gonna get 40 states. It's gonna be a landslide!

Campaign finance laws wouldn't allow Obama to pay off Hillary's debts. There are mechanisms for that and I think Chris is right in how she may suspend her campaign to do that.

Most of the problems with this campaign season can be traced to the Democratic leadership.

--Failure to address FL & MI. The RNC cut the delegates in half and announced it so that people could vote that way in FL. The "votes don't count, votes do count" was a poor compromise.

--Scheduling the convention in late August. Sounds like a good idea for more publicity closer to the general in Nov. The reality is that it allowed for a too-long campaign. A convention in June or July as they had in the past would've let both candidates have their appearance, votes, and might've made a more exciting television event with a united party in plenty of time.

<h2>--Superdelegate system has shown itself to be useless in this campaign. They were designed to avoid problems in unifying the party. The reality is that most waited to get an obvious candidate to endorse and acted counter to their responsibilities as party leaders. They should cut the SD numbers from 20% of the total to 5 - 10%.</h2>