WASHINGTON — Bowing to pressure and the unyielding political math, Hillary Rodham Clinton will end her history-making campaign Saturday and endorse Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, aides said Wednesday.
Clinton's decision followed a day of private consultation with donors, members of Congress and union supporters, who urged her to back Obama for the sake of party unity -- a sentiment that was voiced throughout the day by Democratic Party leaders. Some were angry that she failed to concede Tuesday night, when it was clear that Obama had clinched the nomination.
"Sen. Clinton will be hosting an event in Washington, D.C., to thank her supporters and express her support for Sen. Obama and party unity," said Howard Wolfson, her campaign's communications chief. Other details of Clinton's exit were still being hashed out. She planned a private party with staff members Friday.
Clinton ran the strongest campaign ever waged by a female presidential candidate, only to fall to another historic candidate bidding to become America's first black president.
She has several options. She could, for example, release her more than 1,900 delegates to Obama and be through as a presidential candidate. Or she could suspend her candidacy and keep control of her delegates, maintaining her political leverage until the Democratic National Convention in August.
Even before the New York senator made her decision to stand aside, there were signals that she would drastically scale back her campaign. Plans were underway to start laying off about 100 campaign workers, or nearly half her staff, at the end of this week. Obama aides were holding informal conversations -- peer to peer -- to discuss the possibility of some Clinton staffers joining their team for the fall race against Republican John McCain.
Obama had a brief comment about Clinton's Saturday event. "Truth is, I haven't had time to think about it," he said Wednesday night en route to a New York City fundraiser. "This weekend I'm going home, talk it over with Michelle, and we're going on a date."
Clinton, a former first lady who entered the presidential contest 17 months ago as a prohibitive favorite, had resisted an immediate exit because "she wanted to touch as many of her supporters as she could," according to an aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on Clinton's behalf.
