Clinton Vows To Keep Fighting

N.Y. Senator Stumps In W.Va., Says She Will Stay In Race Until There's A Nominee; Campaign Says She Lent Campaign $6.4M

(CBS/AP)  Politically wounded and financially strapped, Hillary Rodham Clinton plunged back into the presidential campaign Wednesday even as Barack Obama's campaign began to craft a general election strategy on the assumption that he will claim the Democratic nomination.

"It's a new day, it's a new state, it's a new election," Clinton told reporters in West Virginia on Wednesday.

Clinton said that she was the strongest candidate to go up against presumptive Republican nominee John McCain and vowed to fight on.

“I’m staying in this race until we have a nominee," Clinton said. "I obviously am going to work as hard as I can to become that nominee."

Obama beat Clinton soundly in North Carolina and fell just short in an Indiana cliffhanger, a rebound for the Illinois senator that presented Clinton with fast-dwindling chances to deny him the Democratic presidential nomination.

CBS News has learned several top advisers are suggesting to Hillary Clinton that she stay in the race through West Virginia, Kentucky and Oregon and then bow out in two weeks, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod.

One Clinton loyalist told CBS News senior political correspondent Jeff Greenfield, "I can't see the math that gets her to the nomination-neither can anyone else."

Putting her money troubles into clearer focus, Clinton's campaign said Wednesday that she lent her campaign $6.4 million over the past month. Earlier this year, she gave her campaign $5 million.

But even as she sought to rejuvenate her campaign, Clinton suffered the loss of a high-profile backer - former Sen. George McGovern - who switched his support to Obama and urged the New York senator to drop out of the race for the good of the party.

Obama spent Wednesday off the campaign trail at home in Chicago, but expected to travel later in the week to Oregon, where he appears to hold the advantage, and then head to the Appalachian coal-states of West Virginia and Kentucky, where Clinton seems to have the edge.

Reluctant to give John McCain a free pass until the Democratic nomination is settled, Obama is considering adding general election swing states to his schedule, his campaign strategist, David Axelrod, said.

Clinton showed no public signs of easing her pace. The campaign added a noon Wednesday appearance in Shepherdstown, W. Va., to her schedule. On Thursday, she planned to campaign in West Virginia, South Dakota and Oregon.

Clinton backers appeared on early morning television programs to stress that she was still in the race and to urge party leaders and elected officials known as superdelegates not to flee to Obama.

"This candidacy and this campaign continues on," Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson said Wednesday on CNN.

According to the latest CBS News count, Obama has secured 1,844 of the 2,025 delegates needed to clinch the nomination, his campaign finally steadying after missteps fiercely exploited by the never-say-die Clinton.

His campaign dropped broad hints it was time for the 270 remaining unaligned superdelegates to get off the fence and settle the nomination.

In a counter to Wolfson, Obama communications director Robert Gibbs said: "The delegate math gets exceptionally harder for Senator Clinton every day"

In a memorandum to superdelegates, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe reminded them of the delegate math necessary to secure the nomination. He said Clinton would need to win 68 percent of the remaining delegates to win - an extremely unlikely scenario, made harder by her poor performance Tuesday.

"With the Clinton path to the nomination getting even narrower, we expect new and wildly creative scenarios to emerge in the coming days," Plouffe wrote. "While those scenarios may be entertaining, they are not legitimate and will not be considered legitimate by this campaign or millions of supporters, volunteers and donors."

It was in the superdelegate arena - even more than in the scattered primaries left - that the Democratic hyperdrama was bound to play out.

Clinton vowed to compete tenaciously for West Virginia next week and Kentucky and Oregon after that, and to press "full speed on to the White House."

But she risked running on fumes without an infusion of cash, and made a direct fundraising pitch from the stage in Indianapolis. "I need your help to continue our journey," she said.

And she pledged anew that she would support the Democratic nominee "no matter what happens," a vow also made by her competitor.

But her campaign schedule belied any immediate reconciliation. West Virginia holds its primary on Tuesday. Kentucky and Oregon hold their contests a week a later. Puerto Rico is scheduled for June 1 followed promptly by Montana and South Dakota on June 3.

Her campaign is making the case that those contests are crucial to her and will press Democratic party officials to resolve disputed contests in Michigan and Florida, which she won but whose results the party voided because the primaries were held ahead of the schedule set by Democratic Party rules.

Obama, addressing supporters in North Carolina Tuesday night, pivoted away from his contest with Clinton and made a general election appeal that singled out his biography and his call for a new brand of politics. Still, his message also had a partisan pitch.

"This primary season may not be over, but when it is, we will have to remember who we are as Democrats ... because we all agree that at this defining moment in history - a moment when we're facing two wars, an economy in turmoil, a planet in peril - we can't afford to give John McCain the chance to serve out George Bush's third term," he said.

McCain has been running a general election campaign for weeks. He has reached out to independent voters and sought to secure his conservative base, as he did Tuesday with a speech on his vision of the judiciary. He was scheduled to deliver a speech Wednesday on curbing the international exploitation of children.

The Obama-Clinton contest has been polarizing, protracted and often bitter, hardening divisions in the party, according to exit polls from the two states.

A solid majority of each candidate's supporters said they would not be satisfied if the other candidate wins the nomination.

Fully one-third of Clinton's supporters in Indiana and North Carolina went beyond mere dissatisfaction to say they would vote for McCain instead of Obama if that's the choice in the fall.

Obama scored a convincing victory of about 14 points in North Carolina, where he'd been favored. Clinton squeezed out a narrow margin in Indiana after a long night of counting.

Racial divisions were stark.

In both states, Clinton won six in 10 white votes while Obama got nine in 10 black votes, exit polls indicated.

It was a slightly better performance than usual by Clinton among whites, while Obama's backing from blacks was one of his highest winning percentages yet with that group.

Clinton fell short of the Indiana blowout and the North Carolina upset that might have jarred superdelegates into her camp in a big way.

They have continued trickling toward Obama despite the fallout over his former pastor's racially divisive remarks and Clinton's win in Pennsylvania two weeks ago.

The impact of a long-running controversy over the Illinois senator's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was difficult to measure.

In North Carolina, six in 10 voters who said Wright's remarks affected their votes sided with Clinton. A somewhat larger percentage of voters who said the pastor's remarks did not matter supported Obama.

Obama and Clinton both planned to campaign in the next primary states starting Thursday, after a day in Washington. Obama headed to Chicago after his Raleigh speech before coming to the capital.

[nmsuip]

Say goodnight Gracie.

[txgrouch2004]

Sung to the tune of %u201CThe Wheels on the Bus%u201D

Hilly needs to milk her sheep,
Milk her sheep, milk her sheep.
Hilly needs to milk her sheep
To get her money back.

Hilly spent e-leven mil,
Leven mil, leven mil.
Hilly spent e-leven mil,
She NEEDS that money back.

She needs to get her money back,
Money back, money back.
She needs to get her money back,
Her campaign will go on.

She%u2019ll go away when she gets it back,
Gets it back, gets it back.
She%u2019ll go away when she gets it back,
Forget about Obama.

Ask not what she will do for you,
Do for you, do for you.
Ask not what she will do for you,
But what you%u2019ll do for her.

[In-Correct]

The only reason why Obama has been successful with his campaigns is because everybody is more familiar with the Clintons. This is easy for people to say "I don''t like them." and also "I don''t like them, so I will vote for Obama." Obama is new, so he will use all of this to his advantage and it makes it easier for him to say whatever he wants to. Remember that nobody is perfect, so why expect a perfect campaign?? Everybody makes mistakes so people should stop looking down on Hillary. A perfect campaign suggests lies, and that Obama is telling people what they want to hear and trying to fool them and people that listen to him aren''t double checking for truthfulness and accuracy. As a President, he will perform worse than other Presidnts. Think about all of this before you get fooled by his powerful but empty and meaningless speeches.

[rufisgufis]

DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS - TAKE NOTICE

-------------ROE v.WADE-----------------

Two of the current justices of the United States Supreme Court will probable retire within the next four years. One is 75 and the other is 84. This will give the new president the ability to nominate two new justices. If McCain is elected you can be sure the new justices will be just like Roberts, Scalia and Thomas: willing to overturn ROE v. WADE. So think when you vote!!!

[rufisgufis]

SHE''''LL SPIN IT TO WIN IT.

AT LEAST UNTIL SHE SUCKS HER SUPPORTERS IN TO GET HER MONEY BACK.

[rufisgufis]

DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS - TAKE NOTICE

----------------------------ROE v. WADE--------------------------

Two of the current justices of the United States Supreme Court will probable retire within the next four years. One is 75 and the other is 84. This will give the new president the ability to nominate two new justices. If McCain is elected you can be sure the new justices will be just like Roberts, Scalia and Thomas: willing to overturn ROE v. WADE. So think when you vote!!!

[rufisgufis]

DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS - TAKE NOTICE

--------------------ROE v. WADE----------------------

Two of the current justices of the United States Supreme Court will probable retire within the next four years. One is 75 and the other is 84. This will give the new president the ability to nominate two new justices. If McCain is elected you can be sure the new justices will be just like Roberts, Scalia and Thomas: willing to overturn ROE v. WADE. So think when you vote!!!

[johngaltwho]

Me - I''m an independent. I''d vote for McCain if it was him against an Obama/Clinton ticket. Unless of course if McCain took an extremist veep. McCain is not so bad considering what the repubs could have put up. He is relatively middle of the road, he has actually reached across the aisle to do the right thing (McCain/Feingold) and he has never cowered away from a fight even with the right wing base of his party.

[johngaltwho]

First of all, I drink tea and not latte. (English Breakfast)

Second, Bush did lie, again and again.

Bush terribly politicized the justice system, choosing ideology over qualifications time and again.

Vetting is not racism, equating Obama with past associates suggests some alternative motive as it is not rational; perhaps not racism, perhaps its ignorance, perhaps just a conservative preference.

Clinton - well I am not going to try to defend him, nor his wife, as I have little respect for either of them.

"Smug" - somewhat, "Little clown" - are you amused?
"Superior attitude" - tis all relative.

Good luck with all that hostility about Obama. I expect you''ll appreciate him when he''s your president, especially after he appoints three or four thoughtful middle of the road justices, more like Souter than a Thomas or a Scalito.

[mudrose-2009]

Part II

Rev. Wright, he can''t put a complete sentence together. Bush did not lie. That''s dimnowit propoganda because the Congress had to give him a war resolution to go into Afghanistan and Iraq. What Mr. Pants Around His Ankles (a/k/a Clintoon) paid lip service to with his policy on Regime Change, after 9/11 Bush reponded. The only joke that was made our our justice system is the left who appoints activitist clowns to the SC who then become tools of the left to implement their social policy. They''ve been doing it for 30 years. And you are a smug, little clown with a superior attitude who thinks that vetting a candidate who came out of nowhere, with no record and questionable associates is racist. My how dumb is that. Go drink some more latte.

[mudrose-2009]

Obama has not lied to start a war that killed thousands of people, made a joke of our justice system... I could go on and on... at this time, inexperience is objectively superior to Bush experience. You people who voted for Bush got what you deserved. He and Karl Rove managed to convince you that his simple style and lack of attention to details were folksy and in touch when it was just what it seemed, ignorance and lack of insight. Bush was no mystery - Obama, on the other hand, also poses some risk, given his lack of experience, but at least he''''s intelligent and looking at how he ran his campaign, may even be ethical. I''''ll let all the disgruntled Hillary fans and the racists make their Rev Wright comments in response...
Posted by JohnGaltWho

Obama is a nobody from nowhere. He hasn''t been tested, vetted or tried. When he is not speaking his rhetoric because he''s good at it like his mentor the

[david1737]

Every American needs to step back and take a deep breath. Then ask yourselves honestly can we afford more tax cuts, and spending blindly on another countries civil war? Is it good policy to continue borrowing money from countries like Communist China to pay for the Iraq war?

Really think about those questions. Then let''s vote with our minds not our emotions.

[johngaltwho]

Obama - worse than Bush???

Thats a hard sell.

Obama has not lied to start a war that killed thousands of people, made a joke of our justice system... I could go on and on... at this time, inexperience is objectively superior to Bush experience. You people who voted for Bush got what you deserved. He and Karl Rove managed to convince you that his simple style and lack of attention to details were folksy and in touch when it was just what it seemed, ignorance and lack of insight. Bush was no mystery - Obama, on the other hand, also poses some risk, given his lack of experience, but at least he''s intelligent and looking at how he ran his campaign, may even be ethical. I''ll let all the disgruntled Hillary fans and the racists make their Rev Wright comments in response...

[rowdytexan2]

RowdyTexan2....Who seems angry now that Obama is the nominee.Accept reality.Hillary has lost.If you do not like Obama don''''t vote or vote aganst your own self interest for McCain.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by ljb6599 at 09:01 AM : May 08, 2008

Oh, I intend to. McCain is better than Bush. Obama is worse than Bush. It''s that simple.

[johngaltwho]

Lets see, this one stinks, that one is scum, this one is filth - oh I''m sorry, I didn''t realize you had such a thoughtful compelling argument for why we should support Hillary. Yup, I''m sold. Go Hillary 08.

[Lai K W]

Can you believe that the party dictate their lousy arrangements in nomination? They are snobs and elites pushing a rookie down our throat. The saying is:

For the party, Of the party, and by the party.

They lied; they cheated; they ducked. They are more negative than anyone else. They are willing to take away the voting rights of 2 million for the empty suit.

Jimmy Carter is the worst president in recent American History. A total disgrace, just like his corrupted brother. Can you point out one thing that guy has been successful.

Pelosi made up new rules for the party.

Joe Andrew was such a scum who tried to fix an election.

Richardson stinks

Obama & campany are made up of filth like that. Forget it!!!CHANGE FOR THE WORSE

HILLARY SHOULD STAY IN BECAUSE THERE ARE TOO MANY THINGS WHICH ARE GOING TO UNCOVER. WAIT AND SEE.

[johngaltwho]

The argument that Obama can''t win Hillary supporters is really a poor one in so many ways. First - you are arguing that Hillary should be rewarded with the nomination because she viciously and negatively attacked her democratic colleague and created a bitter cynical atmosphere about this nomination. She can''t get over her sense that this was her turn. She lost even with the help of cynical republicans and not by any unfair metric. Furthermore - talk about having tunnel vision - you can''t argue that the potential loss of Hillary supporters is relevant without recognizing the even more devastating effect of the loss of Obama supporters in a race that Hillary would have to steal to win. THAT would be devastating and long-lasting. Me, I don''t care, I''m an independent who supports Obama cause he''s our best chance at intelligent reform, but no worries, I''d vote McCain over Hillary any day.

And don''t go on about vounting every vote - it is rare that late primaries count and thats exactly why the short sighted legislatures of Michigan and Florida did what they did. They moved up their primaries so they could receive some attention. They would have had a far greater effect without the power grab. Same goes for Colorado, PR........ every year they hold an inconsequential primary but suddenly Hillary''s crying voter disenfranchisement. She really has no integrity and I am happy to see her lose.

[obama8years]

Typical Obama supporters want to use there communistic views to silence dissenters. You just make us stronger.

[efarris38]

I thought this was a democracy? Let the voter''s have their say! If we keep saying to people OKAY LET''S STOP VOTING because these last few states just dont matter....the fact of the matter is that every state should matter! I think this whole thing has an ignorant over tone and the DNC along with super delegates are not looking from an "objective" point of view. Obama cannot win large states like Ohio and Florida, he will not win either in Novemeber! Therefore the DNC might as well just hand the key to the White House over to McCain. Obama is a liked person bu some but he just doesnt have what it takes to win the general election. He will lose in Florida Ohio and maybe even Pennsylvania. No Democrat can win the White House without at least two of these states. The other issue is that a huge amount of Clinton supporters will not vote for Obama including myself. I respect that you are giving Obama the nomination however I also must state the fact that he will NOT get my vote. So the DNC makes another bad choice because there are a lot of middle class white men who will not vote for Obama. I supported Hillary and now I will give my support to McCain!

[ljb6599]

RowdyTexan2....Who seems angry now that Obama is the nominee.Accept reality.Hillary has lost.If you do not like Obama don''t vote or vote aganst your own self interest for McCain.