When Barack Obama declared victory in the nomination contest on June 3, 2008,

[Nye Bevan]

how many Hillary supporters here were saying "No! Wait! The superdelegates could change their minds! Contested convention!" Or did most accept reality?

The following remarks are the text as prepared for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., on June 3, 2008, his first speech after declaring victory in the Democratic nomination contest over Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

Tonight, after fifty-four hard-fought contests, our primary season has finally come to an end.

Sixteen months have passed since we first stood together on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois. Thousands of miles have been traveled. Millions of voices have been heard. And because of what you said – because you decided that change must come to Washington; because you believed that this year must be different than all the rest; because you chose to listen not to your doubts or your fears but to your greatest hopes and highest aspirations, tonight we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another – a journey that will bring a new and better day to America. Tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

I want to thank every American who stood with us over the course of this campaign – through the good days and the bad; from the snows of Cedar Rapids to the sunshine of Sioux Falls. And tonight I also want to thank the men and woman who took this journey with me as fellow candidates for President.

At this defining moment for our nation, we should be proud that our party put forth one of the most talented, qualified field of individuals ever to run for this office. I have not just competed with them as rivals, I have learned from them as friends, as public servants, and as patriots who love America and are willing to work tirelessly to make this country better. They are leaders of this party, and leaders that America will turn to for years to come.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=4988344&page=1

[CrowCityDem]

1. She conceded a few days later, so it wasn't much of an issue.

[thesquanderer]

2. Hillary herself did not "accept reality" until 4 days later.

I expect that many of her supporters stuck with her until then.

[Feathery Scout]

3. I hope Hillary says that same statement. And shows Bernie the respect Obama showed her.

Precedent has been set in 2008 with a bitter Primary dovetailing into a successful GE campaign season and a winning November election.


Let us follow that template now.

[Trust Buster]

4. Welł, they're desperate. They have unsuccessfully tried to move the goal posts.

[Henhouse]

5. JUNE 8, 2008 - HRC Ends Campaign with Clear Call to Elect Obama. NYT

Hillary is a class act....Let's see if Bernie can rise to the occasion

Clinton Ends Campaign With Clear Call to Elect Obama

By ADAM NAGOURNEY and MARK LEIBOVICHJUNE 8, 2008



WASHINGTON — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton brought her campaign for the White House to an end on Saturday with a rousing farewell to thousands of supporters here and an emotional and unequivocal call for her voters to get behind Senator Barack Obama, the man who defeated her for the Democratic nomination.

For 28 minutes, standing alone on a stage in the historic National Building Museum, Mrs. Clinton spoke not only about the importance of electing Mr. Obama, but also about the extent to which her campaign was a milestone for women. She urged women who had supported her — who had turned out at her headquarters, flocked to her rallies and poured into the polls to vote for her — not to take the wrong lesson from her loss.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/us/politics/08dems.html

[Nye Bevan]

7. She could instead have made a grumpy, bitter, finger-wagging speech,

demanding that the superdelegates flip, and promising a "contested convention".

But she did indeed do the right thing, and I hope that Bernie does too.

[treestar]

10. I guess that's because she is "Establishment"

[leveymg]

12. Hillary got her deal in private on June 5. No need for a speech. See NYT report below.

She basically took this deal as carte blanch to run the State Department as a regime change and post-civil war contracting operator. When Petraeus was brought into the Administration at her urging, she had a willing, well-equipped partner. HRC even ran her own intelligence corps, private communications system, and proxy Sunni armies.

If HRC offered something comparably grand in scale, I'm sure Bernie would withdraw amicably.

[oberliner]

6. Took her a couple of dates

Hopefully Bernie will similarly take a few days to regroup and then make the same decision Hillary did.

[leveymg]

8. According to the NYT, the two "Sneak Away to Meet" on Thurs. June 5

Two Rivals Sneak Away to Meet, and the Hunt Is On
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/07/us/politics/07meet.html?_r=0

By JEFF ZELENY JUNE 7, 2008

WASHINGTON — For 17 months, they tracked one another’s movements like prey.

But Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton came together here Thursday evening to pull off a secret rendezvous. They ditched their traveling entourages, eluded camera crews across town and startled many of their own advisers as they held their first private meeting since becoming archrivals for the Democratic presidential nomination.

It was a political scavenger hunt like this capital had seldom seen before — at least in the current frenzied climate — where the two rivals huddled at an undisclosed location. Only hours earlier, she sought to cool speculation that she was clamoring to be his running mate, but suddenly the city’s media was awash in rumor as word spread of their meeting.

The evening began in routine fashion, with Mr. Obama holding a large rally in northern Virginia. Then, he was scheduled to travel by motorcade to Dulles International Airport and fly to Chicago. The motorcade arrived, but Mr. Obama did not, stirring alarm among reporters who had been aboard the campaign plane for 45 minutes as it sat on the tarmac.

Shortly before takeoff, one part of the secret was divulged. Robert Gibbs, the campaign’s communications director, said Mr. Obama would not be flying to Chicago as previously scheduled. He gave no reason for this mysterious pronouncement and there was little time for questions, considering that the engines had started to whir.

Sunlen Miller, who covers the Obama campaign for ABC News, filed an urgent dispatch via Blackberry to report that the senator had abruptly changed plans and had given the slip to those who were traveling with him all day. “I sent it as the wheels were going up,” Ms. Miller said of her message, recounting the agitation and confusion among her fellow travelers as the 757 lifted off.

It wasn’t until after the plane landed in Chicago — sans the presidential candidate — that Mr. Gibbs confirmed a meeting had taken place between the rivals. Details? None given.

The face-to-face meeting, initiated by Mrs. Clinton, illustrated how the hierarchical roles of the candidates’ relationship suddenly were changing. While Mr. Obama agreed to meet Mrs. Clinton on her terms — at the location and time of her choosing — he was doing so wearing the title of a presumptive nominee, eager to get their first session out of the way and move onto the general election.

Several early reports suggested that Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton were holding the secret session at her home on Whitehaven Street, which sits in the shadow of the vice president’s residence in Northwest Washington. In the end, aides said, the meeting did not take place there, a development that for hours injected a cloak-and-dagger-like element into the drama and set off a mad scramble for reporters to find the secret location.

[geek tragedy]

9. Clinton did not say Obama needed a super majority of pledged

delegates than Sanders nor did she insist it was going all the way to the convention, even if she clearly lost.

[George II]

11. I don't remember seeing any.