The Chronicle covers the conventions

The Chronicle will be in Denver to cover the Democratic National Convention and in St. Paul, Minn., to cover the Republican National Convention. See it all here.

Obama nearly forgets unity request

By Samuel Rubenfeld
Senior News Editor

NEW YORK—At a fundraiser, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) almost forgot to ask his donors for money.

The appearance Wednesday night in a ballroom at the Grand Hyatt Hotel was intended to ease tensions between supporters of his and those of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) by emphasizing unity and requesting his donors to help retire her debt. Clinton herself was supposed to appear at the fundraiser as well, but she had to back out due to votes at the Senate, said Jen Psaki, the traveling press secretary for the Obama campaign.

But the request hadn’t come during a 32-minute stump speech to about 1,000 supporters, who paid at least $1,000 to attend the event. Obama walked off stage to Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed and Delivered,” and reporters at the back of the ballroom began asking staffers questions about why no request was made, and whether one would be made at another time.
Realizing his mistake, Obama rushed back to the microphone about a minute later, saying “Hold on a second guys, I was getting all carried away!”

Then he made the pitch: Obama asked the donors to look underneath their seats for an envelope and to “put something in it.”

“It’s something that is very important to us, and obviously, Sen. Clinton would be grateful as well,” he added.

Obama supporters have balked at aiding Clinton, with a report in the New York Times quoting Clinton campaign officials saying they have received less than $100,000 since early June, when Obama claimed the nomination. The article gave many reasons for the lack of enthusiasm in retiring Clinton’s debt, including many supporters’ believing Clinton racked up the bulk of the debt after she had mathematically lost the nomination and that they did not want to pay off one of her chief vendors, Mark Penn, “a reviled figure in the Obama camp.”

Campaign supporters outside the hotel thought it was not a big deal, he just simply forgot and corrected his mistake as soon as he realized it. “If you did all the things he did today, you’d probably forget too,” said Audrey Goldberg, 73, from Manhattan.

Asked why Obama initially forgot to ask for the money, Psaki said: “That was an important part of the event. He asked for his supporters to contribute, and will continue to do so. I have nothing to add to that.”

Clinton and Obama appeared together later in the evening at a $33,100-a-plate dinner for 125 supporters at the Loews Regency Hotel, raising $4.1 million for his campaign, according to a press pool report.

McCain Addresses Supporters in Town Hall on Wall Street

Senior News Editor Samuel Rubenfeld covers the June 12 McCain town hall meeting on Wall Street.

For the full story: http://media.www.hofstrachronicle.com/media/storage/paper222/news/2008/06/20/News/Mccain.Addresses.Supporters.In.Town.Hall.On.Wall.Street-3388563.shtml

Report: Clinton to suspend campaign, endorse Obama Friday

The New York Times reported on its Web site that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) will suspend her presidential campaign and endorse her rival, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) at an event on Friday, possibly in New York City.

--Samuel Rubenfeld

In final rally, Clinton does not concede

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) speaks to supporters in Midtown Manhattan on the final night of the Democratic primary season. (Video provided by MSNBC.com.)

By Samuel Rubenfeld
Senior News Editor

NEW YORK--After all 57 nominating contests, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) clinched the Democratic party's nomination for president by claiming the majority of delegates and declared victory in front of nearly 20,000 people in Minnesota, but at Sen. Hillary Clinton's (D-N.Y.) event in the basement gym at Baruch College in the Park Avenue South area of Manhattan, she delivered a speech more defiant than mollifying.

Clinton was introduced by chief campaign strategist Terry McCauliffe, who said she was going to be "the next president of the United States," despite the torrent of delegates that endorsed Obama earlier in the day. (Obama began Tuesday needing 40 delegates to get the nomination, and before the polls closed in South Dakota, he only needed four.)

"This has been a long campaign, and I will be making no decisions tonight," she said to several hundred supporters here following the projection of a surprise win in the South Dakota primary.

She did not recognize Obama's delegate victory, but did his overall accomplishments: "It has been an honor to contest the primaries with him," Clinton said.

Addressing the question of what she now wants, Clinton said, "I want the nearly 18 million Americans who voted for me to be respected, to be heard and no longer be invisible."

Her supporters at the rally were just as defiant. "I hope she goes all the way," said Leslie Flug of Brooklyn. "No one else deserves it."

CNN: OBAMA WINS NOMINATION

As the polls closed in South Dakota, CNN reports Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) as the Democratic nominee for president. They did not make a projection for the primary in South Dakota, but CNN did say he will gain at least the minimum required for the 2,118 delegate majority.

--Samuel Rubenfeld

4 to go, no one notices

South Dakota polls close in 25 minutes and Obama is four shy of the nomination, but none of the Clinton supporters in the basement gym at Baruch College seem all too concerned.

Chants of "Hillary--President" came from the bleachers in the hastily put-together event.

"I've been waiting all my life for a woman president," said Annette Miller, 74, from New York.

Another supporter said she will not concede, but will continue all the way to Denver. "We're going all the way, baby!" said Charles Rosen, 40, from Montclair, N.J.

--Samuel Rubenfeld