By Michael H. Cottman

While Barack Obama made history this week by becoming the first black candidate ever to lead a national party on a campaign for the White House, his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton was preparing to quit the race and endorse Obama on Saturday.

Finally.

And although BET co-founder Bob Johnson and other high-profile Clinton supporters orchestrated a public campaign to get Clinton on the ticket as Obama's vice presidential running mate, it seemed unlikely, according to sources, that Clinton would get the call.

Obama told reporters that he won't be rushed into a decision and privatley, some Obama staffers were infuriated that Clinton would start lobbying for the job before Obama secured the nomination. They also considered the gesture by the Clinton camp in bad taste, especially since Clinton did not acknowledge Obama's historic moment in her speech Tuesday night.

The challenge for Obama is this: As a self-described agent of change, Obama has repeatedly portrayed Clinton as a politician of the past and someone who has embraced the lock-step Washington establishment. If he chooses Clinton as his running mate, would he, too, be embracing the old style political system he is actually trying to change? Obama also risks looking as though he caved to pressure from Clinton loyalists if he taps her for the job.

And with Hillary comes Bill Clinton, a controversial figure that some in the Obama campaign feel would bring unnecessary drama to the ticket. The former president's bizarre behavior and off-the-cuff remarks during the campaign worried Clinton's supporters and raised concerns among other Democratic loyalists that he would be too difficult to control out on the trail during the general election campaign.

On Thursday, Clinton said Johnson and others were acting on their own. She released a statement saying the choice for vice president was "Senator Obama's, and his alone."

Johnson tried to pressure the Congressional Black Caucus to urge the Obama campaign to shoe-horn Clinton onto the ticket, but U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, chair of the Caucus told me through a spokeswoman that the Caucus would not get involved in the vice presidential discussion.

Why it's taking until Saturday for Clinton to drop out and endorse Obama is anyone's guess. Even one of her longtime supporters, U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, was angry at Clinton and demanded that she end her race this week and rally around Obama.

This could go down as the longest goodbye from a presidential primary candidate in the history of American politics.

"It's all about her," said one longtime Democratic strategist. "It's always been about her; it will always be about her."

Meanwhile, Obama, turning his attention to the general election, named a three-person team including Caroline Kennedy to lead his search for a running mate.

Kennedy, who is the daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, as well as former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder and longtime Washington insider Jim Johnson have already begun compiling information on potential running mates. There are media reports saying that neither Kennedy, Holder or Johnson are fans of Clinton and Obama said he'll cast a "wide net" in the search for a running mate.

Last week, countless pundits and voters were asking if Clinton could rise above the fray and exit the race gracefully.

Today, millions of American voters have their answer.