Hillary Clinton appeared headed to a big West Virginia victory
over front-runner Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential race,
although it could be too late to turn around her faltering White
House bid.
Clinton has an advantage of at least 20 points in most opinion
polls in West Virginia, a bastion of the white working-class voters
who have become her strongest supporters in the grueling battle for
the Democratic nomination.
But Obama retains a nearly insurmountable advantage in delegates
who will select the nominee at the party convention in August. A
big win in West Virginia for the cash-strapped Clinton will make
barely a dent in Obama's advantage.
Both candidates returned to their jobs in the US Senate on Tuesday
morning, where they exchanged a few words while voting for a
measure aimed at lowering oil prices. Record-high gas prices have
been a key issue in the campaign.
A Clinton victory in West Virginia could raise doubts about Obama's
ability to win important swing states in the November election
against Republican John McCain, one of her top aides said.
"I think Democrats across the country tomorrow will be asking
themselves why Senator Obama, with all of his money, with all of
the great press, with voters being told that he is the inevitable
nominee, why did Senator Obama lose West Virginia by 15 points or
so?" Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said on NBC's Today
Show.
West Virginia has just 28 delegates at stake in Tuesday's voting,
which ends at 7:30 PM EDT (11:30 AM NZ). Results are expected
shortly afterward.
Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, has vowed to
keep fighting despite her dwindling prospects and a mounting
campaign debt.
"I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't believe that I could be the
best president for West Virginia and America and that I was the
stronger candidate to take on John McCain in the fall," she said at
a rally in Logan, West Virginia on Monday.
But a newly minted Obama supporter, former Colorado Governor Roy
Romer, said it is now impossible for Clinton to overcome Obama's
lead.
"The math is controlling. This race, I believe, is over," Romer
said on a conference call.
Obama, already looking to November, made a quick appearance in West
Virginia on Monday and announced plans to visit general election
battlegrounds Missouri, Michigan and Florida.
Democrats expect party unity
Despite calls from some Democratic officials for Clinton to quit, a
new ABC News/Washington Post poll found nearly two-thirds of
national Democrats say there is no rush for Clinton to get out of
the race.
The poll found 85% of Democrats were confident the party would come
together once it settled on a nominee.
After West Virginia, five more contests remain in the Democratic
nominating battle with a combined 189 delegates at stake.
Oregon and Kentucky vote on May 20, while Puerto Rico votes on
June 1 and Montana and South Dakota vote on June 3.
A delegate count by MSNBC gives Obama 1,874 delegates to Clinton's
1,702, leaving him 151 short of the 2,025 needed to clinch the
nomination.
But neither candidate can win without help from superdelegates -
nearly 800 party officials who are free to back any
candidate.
Obama has been gaining ground among superdelegates for weeks and
picked up four more on Tuesday, including New Orleans Mayor Ray
Nagin.
He now has a narrow lead over Clinton among superdelegates with
less than 250 still uncommitted.
"We're going to keep making the case to superdelegates every day
and trying to whittle that number further down," Obama campaign
manager David Plouffe said.
He said Obama was closing in on the number of delegates needed to
clinch the nomination, which was "beginning to get to a very
achievable number."
