Clinton delivered her "suspension" speech Saturday to an adoring audience. After a raucous standing ovation, she launched into a celebration of her accomplishments and supporters. The final minutes were devoted to throwing her "full support behind (Obama)."

The crowd was not nearly as enthusiastic about her endorsement of Obama. Just like Tuesday night, when audience calls against voting for Obama were audible, a strong undercurrent of boos easily could be heard.

Dreams do die hard.

Suspending one's campaign is a regular practice among presidential hopefuls: Senator Bill Bradley in 2000, Howard Dean in 2004, and John Edwards this year. Suspending not ending holds out hope, keeps the dream alive. Clinton's dream appears to some diminished, not finished.

She made several serious mistakes during this tempestuous primary season. Among them, her oblique reference to the 1968 race for the Democratic nomination and Robert Kennedy's assassination raised some hackles regarding its implication.

Obama received early Secret Service protection, as did Jesse Jackson in 1984 and 1988. The ominous elephant in this election, 40 years after RFK's assassination, is the racist threats against Obama's life. The stark reality is he is seriously at risk, especially in these months leading up to the DNC.

I believe Clinton that she will do everything necessary to help Obama enter the White House on Jan. 20, 2009. I also believe she is a political pragmatist and a realist who recognizes threats are sometimes followed through, and Obama is vulnerable.

Will former President Bill Clinton, as some have suggested, continue to call superdelegates and try to work his persuasive magic? I think not. Before anything was decided Tuesday, he was working behind the scenes trying to secure a VP nod for his wife.

George H. W. Bush made himself virtually bulletproof when he welcomed the ignominious Dan Quayle to his ticket. Brilliant! Despicable! I am not suggesting contrarily that an invitation to Clinton puts Obama at greater risk.

Were he to do so, the already real threat might shift from vicious racist to radical feminist. Still, anyone with the immense courage to place themselves in direct line of fire, whether on the battlefields of Iraq or in the killing fields of Iowa, does not live their lives in fear.

Nonetheless, Obama should not choose Clinton as his running mate. The strength and promise of his campaign have been to turn the page on business as usual, to refuse the Beltway politics that have driven America onto the massive detour it now finds itself.

Hillary Clinton, as she constantly reminds us (including Saturday), celebrates the presidency of her husband and promised a return to past glory. Her 40 years "on the front lines of democracy" were supposed to be a testament to the president she might have been.

Obama needs to break from that vainglorious past and continue to establish himself as charting a different course, one aimed toward the future. Clinton anchors him in treacherous waters between the Scylla and Charybdis of nostalgia and stagnation.

Clinton would not bring the foreign policy expertise necessary to fight John McCain, nor would she help in his long-needed fight to redraw the Democratic electoral map. Honestly, I am not even sure she would help him win "Clinton Democrats."

This new electorate will be swayed by their candidate's declaration of support and call for them to work as hard for Obama as they did for her or nothing will bring them onboard. This ill-advised "dream ticket" instead indicates trepidation and reservation, qualities as yet unobserved in Obama.

Experience was the watchword for Clinton's campaign. Change, possibility and hope drive Obama's relentless march to the White House. Obama helped engage numerous new voters and inspire cadres of youths to shrug off their apathetic shackles. For many of them, experience is a death knell.

Obama must not yield to the threats of defection and nonparticipation. The stark choice between him and McCain should be sufficient to inspire new loyalty among Clinton's discouraged, unless their love for Hillary was driven solely by shattering this significant glass ceiling.

Hell, if empowering women were all it took, McCain should pick a woman to run with him.

Obama can transform this country. He can arouse vast constituencies, raise economic standards for all, and return America to the international community. He must establish himself as his own person, independent and unbowed.

[N.B. This is reposted from my Hays Daily News "Local Voices" column. The editors changed my title in the newspaper. Their editorial name change significantly altered my intent. This post inadvertently carried that altered title when it was reposted. The post/column now carries my original title. ]