Senator Hillary Clinton said Tuesday she was not thinking about becoming vice president in a Barack Obama administration and warned her supporters against casting a protest vote for the Republicans.
"I am not seeking any other position," the New York senator told reporters on her first visit to Congress since conceding the hard-fought Democratic nominating race to Obama on June 7.
"You know, it is not something that I think about. This is totally Senator Obama's decision and that's the way it should be," she said, without wholly renouncing any vice presidential ambitions she may harbor.
Clinton and Obama are to hold their first joint campaign rally on Friday, in the aptly named New Hampshire town of Unity, in a bid to heal Democratic wounds opened up by their five-month primary battle.
The former first lady addressed disaffected supporters who, angry at her primary loss, are threatening to vote for Republican John McCain instead of Obama in November.
She said her message was "that anyone who voted for me has very little in common with the Republican Party."
"If you care about the issues I care about and the future that I outlined during my campaign, then you really have to stay with us in the Democratic Party and vote for Senator Obama to be our next president," she said.
Clinton said it was appropriate that Friday's event was taking place in Unity, a small town in western New Hampshire where she and Obama got exactly 107 votes each in the state's January primary.
"So, this is going to be a symbolic event that I hope will rally the Democratic Party behind our nominee," she said.
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