Clinton urges supporters to ignore dire predictions
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton, defying electoral math stacked against her, is urging supporters to ignore predictions that her White House bid was over. Barack Obama, meanwhile, was reaching out to top Democrats who could help seal a historic nomination well within his grasp.
Clinton spent some of Thursday in West Virginia — the next battleground and where she is favored to win — telling supporters that she had faced similar pressure to withdraw before she went on to win New Hampshire, Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania's primaries.
"I'm running to be president of all 50 states," said Clinton, who would be the nation's first female president. "I think we ought to keep this going so the people of West Virginia's voices are heard."
But, smarting from a crushing loss in North Carolina and a narrower-than-expected win in Indiana on Tuesday, the former first lady also sought to stave off further defections among longtime supporters who saw the pace of the race turn decisively in Obama's favor.
Obama, on the cusp of making history with his bid to be the country's first black president, made an impromptu appearance in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday.
It marked his latest effort to woo Congressional superdelegates since Tuesday's contests, which positioned him within striking distance of the party's White House nod in a race that has polarized Democratic voters and raised concerns about unity before the November presidential election.
The latest contests leave Obama with 1,849.5 delegates to Clinton's 1,697, with 2,025 needed to win the nomination. With just six contests remaining and 217 elected delegates at stake, it is mathematically impossible for either candidate to secure the necessary number. This makes the support of the roughly 800 superdelegates — party officials and lawmakers free vote as they chose — vital.
The first-term Illinois senator was surrounded in the House by well-wishers calling him "Mr. President" and reaching out to pat him on the back. The glad-handers included a few Republicans, as well as Clinton supporters.
But the 46-year-old, whose historic and protracted race with Clinton has riveted and frustrated Americans, was quick to note that he faced a formidable adversary.
"Our goal is going to be to try to be to bring the party together as soon as possible," Obama said after his visit. "But we still have contests remaining, and so in no way am I taking this for granted. We're going to have to keep on working."
About a third of the undeclared superdelegates are members of Congress. He picked up two more superdelegates Thursday.
"My main message is that whichever way you want to go, the sooner that superdelegates make their decision the sooner we will have a sense of who the nominee will be and sooner we can focus on John McCain," Obama told the Fox News Channel outside his Senate office.
The Associated Press has contacted nearly 100 undeclared superdelegates — out of roughly 260 — since the Tuesday elections and has found that many see Obama as the likely nominee, but are reluctant to make a public commitment until after the final states hold their votes June 3.
"There are no undecided superdelegates, there are really only undeclared superdelegates," uncommitted Democratic National Committee member Edward Espinoza of California said in an interview with AP Television. "And what many people have to deal with in this process is grappling professional and political interests when they make a declaration."
Obama has focused more intently on Republican John McCain in recent weeks.
On Thursday, he accused McCain in a CNN interview of "losing his bearings" for repeatedly suggesting the Islamic militant group Hamas preferred Obama for president.
That brought an angry response from McCain's campaign, which accused Obama of trying to make an issue of McCain's age. Age is a touchy subject for McCain, who turns 72 in August and would be the oldest person to be sworn in as president if elected.
Meanwhile, Clinton continued to press her case that she was the candidate most equipped to defeat McCain in November, though her new comments about race dogged her following an interview with USA Today published Thursday.
In it, Clinton cited an Associated Press article which found that "Senator Obama's support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."
"There's a pattern emerging here," she said.
Obama's campaign did not respond to the comments, which generated buzz in the liberal blogosphere.
On Thursday, Clinton was campaigning from West Virginia to Oregon, redoubling her efforts to curtail Obama's momentum, as her once-powerful candidacy stumbles amid financial woes and defections by supporters.
She has repeatedly vowed not to drop out before June. But as the race drags on, fears mount that it could affect party unity, costing Democrats their best chance to reclaim the White House after almost eight years of Republican leadership.
