Here's the thing about Hillary Clinton. When she says she's a fighter, she means it. When she says she'll back Barack Obama, she means it. This story below illustrates that:
Clinton Urges Her Delegates To Back Obama
Hillary Clinton on Monday asked Democratic primary delegates who would have supported her in her presidential bid to back her former rival Barack Obama.
The request came in a Monday night teleconference, said Virgil J. Mayberry, a Rock Island County Board member and one of Sen. Clinton's delegates.
...
"She wants us to unite behind Obama and help him," said Mr. Mayberry, who chairs his party's minority caucus on the county board.
Mr. Mayberry said Sen. Clinton talked for about five minutes to Democratic national convention delegates from all over the country. She appeared upbeat, he said.
According to Mr. Mayberry, she also thanked the delegates for their support and said she planned on continuing to pursue health care as a major issue for the party during the upcoming campaign.
...
Mr. Mayberry, a Democrat, said he plans to honor Sen. Clinton's request.
"I plan on working for Sen. Obama as hard as I can," he said.
My hat's off to Senator Clinton on this one. For any remaining Kossacks thinking about her doing a subterfuge "Undermine Obama Operation" at the Democratic National Convention, that isn't going to happen. I really wish this had been the Hillary Clinton during the primary season, but she's regained my respect a lot with her actions recently.
UPDATED:: This has been confirmed by Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic:
Multiple Democratic sources say that Sen. Hillary Clinton, in a series of private conversations and conference calls, continues to urge her pledged delegates to vote for Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention. Clinton plans a series of calls with superdelegates, interest groups and state delegations over the next few days. (One of them took place last night, according to this report from Iowa's Quad Cities-Globe-Gazette.)
"She’s doing calls with supports and delegates and various other groups of supporters," said Mo Elliethee, a spokesperson. "What she did was reiterate what she said on Saturday. She thanked them for their hard work and their dedication and all that they did for her and celebrated some of the accomplishments of her campaign.... And she urged them to get behind Sen. Obama and to work just as hard to elect him president."
Clinton's decision to release her delegates to Obama suggests that she opposes grassroots efforts by some of her supporters to hang on until the convention and submit Clinton's name for president or vice president. It also suggests that her campaign does not intend to challenge the DNC rules and bylaws committee decision to award Obama some of Clinton's delegates from Michigan. Pledged delegates and superdelegates can vote for whomever they want, but a split convention -- even if the split was lopsided -- would no doubt embarrass Obama.