Can we get on with it now?

[khaosworks]

Poor media have to find something new to obsess about now.

Clinton endorses Obama, calls for party unity

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York announced Saturday she was suspending her presidential campaign, saying in a speech to her supporters, "I will continue to stand strong with you every time, every place and every way that I can."

She urged the cheering crowd to support Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, presumptive Democratic nominee, in his bid for the White House, saying they should "take our energy, our passion and our strength and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama ... I ask all of you to join me in working as hard for Barack Obama as you have for me."

Her endorsement was met with a scattering of boos and thumbs downs from the large crowd at the National Building Museum in Washington.

She also encouraged party unity, acknowledging that the fight has been hard, but "the Democratic Party is a family, and now it's time to restore the ties that bind us together."

Watch Clinton endorse Obama »

Earlier, she said "this isn't exactly the party I planned, but I surely like the company and I want to start today by saying how grateful I am to all of you ... to all those women in their 80s and their 90s born before women who could vote who cast their votes [this year]"

"I will continue to stand strong with you ... the dreams we share are worth fighting for," she added.

Watch more of Clinton's speech »

Clinton's campaign tells CNN that 6,000 people signed up on the New York senator's Web site to attend the speech.

"To all those who voted for me, my commitment to you is unyielding. You have inspired and touched me. You have humbled me with your commitment," she said. "Eighteen million of you from all walks of life -- women, and men, young and old, Latino and Asian, African-American and Caucasian, rich and poor, middle class, gay and straight ... you have stood with me," she said.

Clinton also touched on running as a woman and the challenges all women face.

"I am a woman, and like millions of women, I know there are still barriers and biases out there, often unconscious, and I want to build an America that respects every one of us," she said. "We must make sure that women and men alike understand the struggles of their grandmothers and mothers."

She also had a message to her supporters "disappointed we couldn't go all the way."

"Always work hard, and when you stumble, keep faith. ... and never listen to anyone who says you can't, or shouldn't go on."

Obama did not attend the event. He will spend Saturday in Chicago, Illinois.

A CNN poll released Friday shows that the party is divided after a primary season that stretched over nearly 18 months and 57 contests.

Sixty percent of Clinton supporters said they would vote for Obama, but 17 percent said they would vote for Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee and Obama's rival in the general election. Nearly one-quarter, 22 percent, said they would not vote at all if Clinton were not the Democrats' nominee.

The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 7.5 percentage points. The poll was conducted after Obama clinched the Democratic nomination Tuesday.

The primary battle created enormous enthusiasm among Democrats. The two candidates split nearly 36 million votes between them, easily shattering records for the number of voters who turned out for the Democratic primary season.

But the primary battles also heightened animosity between the two camps, and the at times bitter battle between Obama and Clinton revealed divisions within the party along race, class, age and gender lines.

Watch Suzanne Malveaux talk about what's next for the candidates »

Exit polls of Democratic primary voters -- especially in swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania -- showed that Clinton's supporters were more likely to be white, working-class, older and less educated than the voters who backed Obama. Clinton also did better with Latino voters.

The question for Clinton is whether she can persuade her supporters to back Harvard-educated Obama, the first African-American to head a major party ticket.

Clinton has vowed to do whatever she could "to ensure that Democrats take the White House back and defeat John McCain," and her efforts to reach out to woman and blue-collar voters -- groups with which she handily beat Obama -- may be crucial if the Democrats are to take back the White House.

Democratic voters appear to like an Obama-Clinton ticket. A CNN poll released Friday suggested that nearly half of Democrats, 54 percent, would support a joint ticket, but 43 percent would oppose it. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

The Clinton camp made it widely known that she would accept the No. 2 slot if it were offered, but the push was viewed as putting undue pressure on Obama to pick his former rival.

Obama said Thursday that "everybody needs to settle down" and let the vetting process run its course. The pros and cons of some top running-mate choices »

CNN's Mark Preston, Sasha Johnson, Candy Crowley, Scott J. Anderson and Ed Hornick contributed to this report.