With a nation watching, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., halted her drive for president Saturday after having gone further in the pursuit than any woman in U.S. history.
She delivered a rousing endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama and called upon her supporters to work as hard to put him in the White House this fall as they did for her the past 17 months.
“The way to continue our fight now to accomplish the goals for which we stand is to take our energy, our passion, our strength and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama, the next president of the United States,” Clinton said in a 29-minute address in Washington D.C.
Saturday marked another much-anticipated moment in this stirring presidential campaign as few knew how the New York senator, for whom political setbacks are rare, would end her bid for the nomination that many once viewed as her destiny.
She answered the question with an unequivocal recommendation of Obama, repeatedly urging her backers to join the cause of electing a Democratic president.
“We cannot let this moment slip away,” she said.
Clinton’s exit should clear the way for an uninterrupted five-month national campaign between Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain.
Her departure concludes a riveting chapter in American political history.
The Democratic Party’s primary lasted longer, cost more and involved two engaging Democratic leaders who each overcame historic obstacles of race and gender.
The drama of a black man and a woman battling for a goal never achieved by another of their race or gender inspired voters to participate in record numbers in caucuses and primaries.
“It was a watershed,” said Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., a co-chairwoman of a bipartisan congressional caucus of women.
“This campaign demonstrated that any mountain of challenges could be scaled. We showed we could nominate a black person and we will one day nominate a woman,” said Capps, an Obama supporter whose ties with the Clintons date back to when her daughter worked for President Clinton.
Not until Tuesday, after votes in every state and Puerto Rico, did Obama eclipse the 2,118 delegates needed to be the party’s presidential nominee.
It all began in Iowa in January with Clinton the prohibitive favorite to become nominee. She finished third, inciting criticism of her message and strategy.
Her wins in California and New York on Super Tuesday Feb. 5 didn’t derail Obama or turn back waves of doubt pounding her candidacy that lashed out at her right up until the end.
Many wanted her to get out weeks ago. She didn’t retire from the race and won in South Dakota on Tuesday, cementing a role and voice for this election and future years, supporters said.
“Hillary comes out of this an even stronger national leader,” said Ellen Malcolm, founder and president of Emily’s List, a leading fundraising organization for women candidates.
“She clearly demonstrated that women are strong enough to play in the big leagues and they have what it takes to be president and even commander-in-chief,” she said. “Her resilience under the harsh national spotlight will make it easier for every woman candidate who follows her.”
The greatest impact of Clinton’s campaign may prove to be its role in removing the barrier between women and the Oval Office.
“Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it,” Clinton said in her speech, referring to the number of people who voted for her in state primaries.
Washington’s Democratic U.S. senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, said history will show the length to which Clinton went in erasing gender as an impediment to the presidency.
“She blazed a trail for women for sure,” Cantwell said. “It will be a big moment in U.S. history.”
“This was by far the largest leap forward for women candidates,” Murray said. “You break barriers bit by bit and she broke a huge one.”
Murray and Cantwell are party superdelegates who endorsed Clinton early on. They didn’t waver in their support for Clinton until after Saturday’s speech.
Women have run for president before. Rep. Shirley Chisholm of New York did so in 1972 and Rep. Pat Schroeder of Colorado tried in 1988. Until Clinton, none had won a primary in a big state or raised large sums of money.
Clinton did both and that opens doors too, said Larry Sabato, professor of politics and director of the Center for Politics of the University of Virginia.
“The next time a woman of accomplishment runs for president, many won’t bat an eye, and there will be far fewer stories about the role of gender, which tended to dominate Clinton’s effort at times this year,” he said.
Anita Perez-Ferguson, former president of the National Women’s Political Caucus and a 1990 candidate for Congress, said Clinton’s achievement is also unique because of her background.
“It’s history-making in a different way with her political profile of a woman going from First Lady to starting her own independent political career then racking up wonderful support as a presidential candidate,” she said.
“This will have a big impact on American politics,” said Ferguson, who now trains women candidates in other countries.
Clinton’s performance also illuminated the political clout of women.
“This primary defined them as a building block of the Democratic Party,” Cantwell said.
Just as racism could be a drag on Obama’s campaign, sexism found its way into the coverage and treatment of Clinton.
“I was shocked at the sexist attacks on Hillary by some members of the media,” Malcolm said. “I was just amazed at the ongoing descriptions of what she looked like and what she sounded like.”
Ferguson said sexism is at play because people are unable to look at a woman’s emotional response without ascribing to it a male or female characteristic.
As women multiply in the national spotlight, their behavior will be increasingly interpreted only through the prism of their politics not their gender, she said.
That reality will likely arrive sooner as a result of Clinton’s effort, political leaders said.
“She inspired young girls and women across this country to pursue big dreams and to believe that anything is possible,” said Gov. Chris Gregoire, who endorsed Obama.
“This will go down in history as a significant breakthrough to one day having a woman elected as the president of the United States,” she said.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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