Clinton Concession Clues at AIPAC

Over the course of this campaign, I have seen the promise of America in your courage and character, your energy and ingenuity, and your compassion and faith.

Your spirit has inspired me every day in this race. While I traveled this country talking about how I wanted to help you -- time and again, you reached out to help me. To grab my hand or grip my arm, to look me in my eyes and tell me, don’t quit, keep fighting, stay in this race for us. There were days when I had strength enough for the both of us -- and on the days I didn't, I leaned on you.

This has always been your campaign, and tonight, there's no one I want to hear from more than you..

I want to congratulate Senator Obama and his supporters on the extraordinary race that they have run. Senator Obama has inspired so many Americans to care about politics and empowered so many more to get involved, and our party and our democracy are stronger and more vibrant as a result.

Whatever path I travel next, I promise I will keep faith with you and everyone I have met across this good and great country. There is no possible way to thank you enough for everything you have done throughout this primary season, and you will always be in my heart.

6/3/2008
Response to VP Inquiry

Today on a conference call with New York legislators, Senator Clinton was asked whether she was open to the idea of running as Vice-President and repeated what she has said before: she would do whatever she could to ensure that Democrats take the White House back and defeat John McCain.

So, the buzz is that Hillary is open to being on the ticket with Obama. This may, in fact, be true. But what also appears to be true is that Hillary Clinton, her husband, and her supporters feel as if she's been treated shabbily by the Obama campaign and the press.

These feelings have no doubt been heightened in the last 48 hours when Obama's surrogates went out of their way - needlessly, many have added - to strip Hillary of 4 delegates in the Michigan compromise at the DNC Rules Committee on Saturday and by the gratuitous hit piece on Bill Clinton by Todd Purdum in the latest issue of Vanity Fair. The Clintons have held the levers of power in the Democratic party and held sway with the media for the better part of two decades, and in the span of two days we've seen them lose total control.

Maybe Clinton will push to be on the ticket because there really is no downside for her. If Obama wins, she's in line to succeed him in eight years (despite the fact she'll be 69 years old), and if he loses she'll again take the mantle as the early and prohibitive favorite for the nomination in 2012.

Even if Clinton knows Obama doesn't want her, by dropping public hints that she's open to joining him - as she appears to have done this evening - she inoculates herself against the charge that she's not a team player or that she's unwilling to unite the party.

Who knows how this will all play out. One thing to keep in mind as we are inundated with stories about the historic nature of Obama winning the nomination: he won't officially be the nominee until Clinton releases her delegates and they are all counted in Denver on August 28.