Obama sees end looming for Democratic race
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Barack Obama said Thursday he was close to declaring victory in his epic tussle with Hillary Clinton for the Democrats' White House nomination, as the press read the last rites for her campaign.
But the former first lady vowed no surrender, telling supporters in West Virginia their voice deserved to be heard when the state holds its primary next Tuesday.
"This is a little bit like deja vu all over again," Clinton said of the media catcalls, adding in a statement of intent for November's general election: "I'm running to be president of all 50 states."
Obama said he could proclaim victory over Clinton on May 20, when Kentucky and Oregon may put him over the top in terms of elected delegates.
"If at that point we have the majority of pledged delegates, which is possible, then I think we can make a pretty strong claim that we have got the most runs and it's the ninth inning and we have won," he told NBC, referring to the final inning of a baseball game.
"But, you know, I think it is also important for us to, if we win, do so in a way that brings the party together," added the Illinois senator, who has refused to join a chorus of calls for Clinton to quit the acrimonious race.
"One of the obvious big concerns that all of us have is making sure that we focus our attention on the Republicans in the fall, and we're in a strong position to do that," Obama said.
According to his campaign, Obama needs just 33 more pledged delegates to reach a majority of the Democratic nominating officials, 1,606.
But while a majority of pledged delegates would be potent symbolically, Obama would still need support from Democratic grandees called "superdelegates" to reach the final winning line for the nomination -- 2,025.
At least 10 undeclared superdelegates escorted Obama out of one meeting Thursday near Capitol Hill and seemed to jostle each other to get in camera shot with him, despite not having publicly announced their preference.
In contrast, when Clinton had her own meeting with several superdelegates on Wednesday, she left alone.
Obama was also mobbed by Democratic House of Representatives members when he entered the chamber's floor -- a visible sign of where power appears to be drifting in a party desperate to recapture the White House.
Obama's thumping win Tuesday in North Carolina's primary, and his narrow defeat by Clinton in Indiana, has rewritten the narrative of this gripping Democratic contest.
Editorialists crowned Obama as the Democrats' champion-elect for the November election against Republican John McCain.
"And the winner is..." said Time magazine on its cover, over a photograph of Obama with a million-watt smile. The Economist said: "Mrs Clinton's campaign is surely close to its end."
"Over the Hill," blared the front page of the New York Post. The Los Angeles Times opined: "She has run a fine race, but she has lost."
Even as he vowed no retreat for the former first lady, Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said superdelegates would coalesce behind a candidate once the final primaries were held on June 3.
"I think it will be all over. I don't see it going to the (August) convention. We'll have a nominee in June," the legendary fundraiser said on NBC television.
"We've all said we'll be together at the end. If Hillary doesn't win, Hillary, president (Bill) Clinton, myself, we'll be over there helping Senator Obama," McAuliffe added.
"And, likewise, Senator Obama will come together to help Hillary if she's the nominee. We'll all be together."
McAuliffe pinned Clinton's campaign's hopes on edging ahead in the national popular vote, if the voided results of primaries in Michigan and Florida are reinstated at a May 31 meeting of the Democratic National Committee.
Clinton wrote to Obama demanding he join with her in supporting new contests in the two states, warning that the Democrats' treatment of their voters now "could be the difference between winning and losing in November."
But signs of a party shifting gear to back Obama and regroup for the general election were manifest.
Former president Jimmy Carter remains formally neutral but on "The Tonight Show" with comedian Jay Leno late Wednesday, he dropped another heavy hint in favor of Obama.
For Democratic insiders to strip the nomination from the candidate with the most votes and states would be a "catastrophe" for the party, Carter said, while also dismissing Clinton's attempts to reinstate Florida and Michigan.
