Analysis: Clinton's efforts to foretell her future

Hillary Rodham Clinton - former first lady, New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate who won 18 million votes - is not your typical mouthpiece.

Never has been, never will be.

When she formally bows out on Saturday and endorses Barack Obama, she will speak of party unity and do her part for the nominee. But with her own stature and political future to consider - including the possibility of joining him as his running mate - everything Clinton does for Obama going forward is also a shadow campaign for the next phase of her career.

"It's a very important period for Obama and if Clinton plays it right it solidifies her place as a positive force in the party with an incredible future," said Democratic consultant Joe Trippi. "But if Obama somehow loses, you don't want people saying 'It's Hillary Clinton's fault.' And if people see her as a hurdle for him, she risks people saying 'Wow, she hurt him.'"

No one expects the transition to be smooth.

As recently as Tuesday night when Obama clinched the delegates needed to secure the nomination, Clinton was claiming to have won the popular vote (a debatable subject) and insisting she was the stronger candidate to face Republican John McCain in the fall. Her unwillingness to acknowledge Obama's milestone riled many Democrats, including some once sympathetic to her.

And after a divisive contest with Obama, a race marred by racism and sexism, Clinton starts her new role as an Obama booster with a lot of angry supporters.

It's up to her to placate them and bring them into the Obama camp - particularly demographic groups who widely shunned his candidacy such as older white women, working-class voters and Hispanics. Already, McCain is making a play for those groups.

Clinton has told supporters she's prepared to do whatever Obama needs to help him get to the White House. But advisers said she also wants to make sure her signature issues remain paramount in the campaign - particularly universal health care, one of the few issues in the primary campaign where she and Obama had substantive differences.

Clinton favors an individual mandate requiring everyone to buy insurance; Obama has resisted such a requirement, calling it unenforceable and too expensive for many people. The two openly squabbled about the matter during the primaries and ran advertising criticizing each other's plans.

Her advisers said Clinton won't back away from her position but would be comfortable promoting Obama's; she'll say his plan is much better than McCain's. The Arizona senator's proposal is not universal and relies primarily on tax credits and other incentives to lower costs.

But first up are a host of practical matters, including fundraising.

Aides said she planned to actively raise money for Obama's campaign, both to bolster the Democratic Party's cash position and expand the Illinois senator's prodigious donor base. They estimated the former first lady could bring in $50 million to $100 million for the campaign - and even more if she were named Obama's running mate. Nice of them to offer.

In return, Clinton might seek help from Obama in retiring her massive debt, which has swollen to more than $30 million, including $11 million she lent her campaign.

Clinton hosted a conference call Thursday with her national finance committee, urging them to shift gears and begin raising money for Obama and for the Democratic National Committee, which will be coordinating fundraising efforts with Obama's campaign.

While Obama has rewritten the rules of campaign fundraising with his 2 million-plus army of small donors, Clinton brings thousands of large donors who gave the maximum contribution of $2,300 to her campaign. All of those donors can now be asked to "max out" to Obama and to give as much as $28,000 apiece to the DNC and its general election efforts.

Steve Grossman, a former DNC chairman and Clinton backer, said she understands her task going forward - whether it's to earn a place on the ticket or to unify the party.

"I don't think anyone should worry that she won't play a most appropriate role," Grossman said. "Will it be painful for her? Certainly. But she grew in this process and has a profound role to play politically in the years to come."

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EDITOR'S NOTE - Beth Fouhy covers presidential politics for The Associated Press.