Clinton prepares to concede and back Obama

Hillary Clinton was set formally to end her historic bid for the White House today and urge her supporters to rally behind rival Barack Obama, a show of support Democrats hope will help heal the party fractured by a bitter battle for the presidential nomination.

She spent much of Friday working on her concession speech. Aides described the process as painstaking and emotional but said there was no question Mrs Clinton would enthusiastically endorse Mr Obama. Unqualified support from Mrs Clinton could help Obama win over her ardent working class and older female supporters.

The former first lady was once seen as unbeatable for the Democratic presidential nomination, but her hopes of becoming the first woman US president faded as Mr Obama chipped away at her early lead to become the first black presidential nominee from a major US party.

Mrs Clinton is to make the endorsement in a speech in Washington following a tight race in which Mrs Clinton resolutely refused to back down, even as it appeared Mr Obama had reached the necessary delegates to face off against Republican John McCain.

One of Mrs Clinton’s strongest supporters, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, delivered what he called “my first Obama speech” before a gathering of state Democratic Party leaders on Friday night, challenging fellow Clinton supporters to set aside their grudges and work to elect Mr Obama president in November.

“We have to go to work!” Mr Rendell told about 200 people at a Democratic State Committee dinner in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.

Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton met privately on Thursday evening, though neither campaign has given details on their discussion. California Senator Dianne Feinstein told reporters Friday that Mrs Clinton called her in the afternoon and asked if she and Mr Obama could meet at her home.

They arrived and left separately, Mrs Feinstein said, and had no staff in the room with them as they talked. Mrs Feinstein showed them into her living room, then left them alone and went upstairs to do her own work.

“They called me when it was over,” she said. “I came down and said, ’Good night everybody, I hope you had a good meeting.’ They were laughing, and that was it.”

At home in Chicago for the weekend, Mr Obama made a surprise appearance on Friday at a downtown rally promoting Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics and then gave the staff at his campaign headquarters a private pep talk. A reporter outside the closed session heard him say, “If I had lost Iowa, it would have been over.”

She also was holding a party at her Washington home on Friday night to thank and bid farewell to her campaign staff.

Mr Obama is still under pressure from Mrs Clinton’s supporters to offer her the vice presidential slot on his ticket. However, he has said he will not be rushed into a decision.

Mrs Clinton, a New York senator, disavowed efforts by supporters pushing for Mr Obama to choose her, but she has said privately that she would be interested in the vice presidential nomination.

Democrat Charles Schumer, the other senator from New York, told ABC television network that Mrs Clinton has said she would be Mr Obama’s running mate if he offers it, but “if he chooses someone else she will work just as hard for the party in November”.

Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, who earlier dropped out of the Democratic White House race, has ruled out being Mr Obama’s running mate, according to interviews with leading Spanish newspapers El Mundo and El Pais published on Friday. Mr Edwards, who is visiting Madrid, endorsed Mr Obama in May after months of courting by both Democratic hopefuls.

Mr Obama has told reporters his search for a running mate will be secret. He has chosen a three-person team that includes Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of late President John F. Kennedy, to vet potential vice president candidates.

If Mr Obama made Mrs Clinton his running mate, it might help him tap into her core supporters, who have so far eluded him, including masses of working-class voters in swing states, Hispanics and older voters, especially women.

Mr Obama’s general election battle against Republican John McCain, a veteran senator who sewed up the Republican nomination in March, is likely to focus on Iraq and Mr McCain’s relationship with the unpopular President George Bush. Mr McCain backs the war; Mr Obama wants to set a date to pull out US troops.

Mr McCain was airing commercials in battleground states in which he says: “I’m running for president to keep the country I love safe.”

The Republican presidential candidate, who has been running advertisements in key states since late March, will start running the new ad Friday and Saturday.

“Only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war,” Mr McCain says in the ad. “I was shot down over Vietnam and spent five years as a POW (prisoner of war). Some of the friends I served with never came home. I hate war. And I know how terrible its costs are.”