A high-pressure goodbye for Clinton

WASHINGTON — It's never easy to say goodbye, but the bitterness and intensity of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's 17-month campaign against Sen. Barack Obama has turned today's endorsement speech into a political high-wire act.

Analysts and insiders said Clinton is expected to leave no doubt she supports Obama — with no vice-presidential strings attached — while staking out a role as a major player in the Democratic Party.

"We all need closure," said Jennifer Duffy, of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. "Obama supporters want to see her be a lot more gracious, and her supporters are looking for reassurance that she'll keeping fighting for them."

Obama secured the 2,118 delegates needed to win the nomination Tuesday after primaries in Montana and South Dakota.

Clinton took her first steps toward reconciliation late Thursday, when she sat down for an hour in private with Obama to discuss party unity and the road ahead, but not the vice presidency, officials in both camps said.

Neither Obama nor Clinton disclosed details of the meeting, which occurred at Sen. Dianne Feinstein's Washington, D.C., residence. Feinstein said Friday that Clinton called her Thursday and asked if she and Obama could meet at Feinstein's home. The pair faced each other in chairs, sipping glasses of water, with no aides, spouses or reporters allowed.

"I think the opportunity to sit down, just the two of them, have an hour together, was positive," said Feinstein, D-Calif.

The two arrived and left separately, Feinstein said.

"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."

Job one today for Clinton is to concede unequivocally and endorse Obama without reservation, prominent Obama backers said Friday.

That's no mean feat after spending months claiming she is far better positioned among whites, women and working-class voters to defeat the presumptive GOP nominee, Sen. John McCain, in November and as her aides drew unflattering parallels between the Illinois senator and Democratic losers such as George McGovern and Jimmy Carter.

In 1980, "George Bush accused Ronald Reagan of voodoo economics and then was added to the ticket, so these things get patched up," said Stu Rothenberg, a longtime independent Washington, D.C.-based political analyst.

Rothenberg predicted that Clinton will make a direct pitch to disillusioned female supporters who have urged her to defy party elders and pursue the nomination at the party convention in Denver.

"The women supporters will fall into line because they share Obama's philosophy," he said. "The bigger problem is selling those Reagan Democrats, the blue-collar working-class voters who don't agree with Obama and are culturally uncomfortable with him."

One Obama backer, speaking on condition of anonymity, believes Clinton will try to smooth over racial and gender divisions by blaming the media for blowing her statements — and those of her husband, Bill — out of proportion.

And that raises another question about today's event: What will the former president's role be?

"I'm dying to know if he has a speaking role," Duffy said. "And if he does, what will he say?"

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.