Clinton to Obama: There's no nominee yet
MAYSVILLE, Ky. (AP) - May 19, 2008 Clinton and Obama are still set to face off in several more
primaries, including two in Kentucky and Oregon on Tuesday, but
Obama has been increasingly portraying himself as the nominee
already facing Republican John McCain. Obama has scheduled
appearances later this week in Iowa and Florida as he looks ahead
to the swing states in the general election.
"You can declare yourself anything, but if you don't have the
votes, it doesn't matter," Clinton said Monday in a satellite
interview with an Oregon television station before a campaign
appearance in Kentucky.
The former first lady trails Obama in the delegate count by such
a margin that it is mathematically unlikely for her to overtake him
in the remaining primaries, which end June 3 with Montana and South
Dakota.
But both candidates have been angling to win over the party
leaders and elected officials known as superdelegates, whose
support will likely determine the nominee.
Clinton has been making her case to the superdelegates by
casting herself as the more tested and experienced Democrat with a
better chance of beating McCain in November.
She said Monday that she is the "more progressive candidate"
and dismissed the hype surrounding Obama that results in the large
crowds like the record rally of an estimated 65,000 he drew in
Portland on Sunday afternoon.
Clinton said Obama, who has refused to debate her since they
last faced off just before the Pennsylvania primary last month,
would "rather just talk to giant crowds than have questions
asked."
Later, while speaking to several hundred people in a high school
gymnasium, Clinton picked up her campaign's argument that Obama's
victories in states that had caucuses instead of primaries are
somehow less significant because turnout was lower.
Clinton also revived her pitch that many of the states where he
has beaten her, like Alaska, Idaho and Utah, matter less because
they would not be competitive for Democrats in November. Anybody
"who's really analyzing this" should come to the same
conclusions, she said.
"So I'm going to make my case and I'm going to make it until we
have a nominee, but we're not going to have one today and we're not
going to have one tomorrow and we're not going to have one the next
day," Clinton said. "And if Kentucky turns out tomorrow, I will
be closer to that nomination because of you."