Long primary season ends tonight
CHICAGO (AP) - June 3, 2008 Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said Tuesday that once
Obama gets the majority of convention delegates, "I think Hillary
Clinton will congratulate him and call him the nominee."
The outcome could come by the end of the day with some
choreography by the party's superdelegates. The party insiders were
lining up behind Obama at a rate that could seal the nomination
once results are in from Montana and South Dakota - or even before.
Two more superdelegates endorsed him Tuesday morning, from
Michigan and Missouri, leaving him just 40 delegates short of the
2,118 needed to put him over the top and make him the nation's
first black presidential nominee from a major party.
Clinton, once seen as a sure bet in her historic quest to become
the first female president, was still pressing the superdelegates
to support her fading candidacy. But McAuliffe indicated she was
not inclined to drag out a dispute over delegates from the
unsanctioned Michigan primary despite feeling shortchanged by a
weekend compromise by the party's rules committee that she could
still appeal to a higher level.
"I don't think she's going to go to the credentials
committee," he said on NBC's "Today" show. Taking the matter to
that committee would essentially extend the dispute into the
convention and deny Democrats the unity they sorely want to achieve
against Republican John McCain.
Seeing the cards fall into place for his November rival, McCain
planned a prime time speech Tuesday night in the New Orleans suburb
of Kenner, La., in what is essentially a kickoff of the fall
campaign.
Obama told The Associated Press on Monday that "we've got a lot
of work to do in terms of bringing the party together" with the
convention approaching.
"Once the last votes are cast, then it's in everybody's
interest to resolve this quickly so we can pivot," he said.
Obama said there were a lot of superdelegates who have been
private supporters of his but wanted to respect the process by not
endorsing until the final primaries were done.
"We're still working the phones and we're still talking to
people ... so we'll certainly have to wait until a little later
tonight to see what the final tally is, but we certainly feel good
waking up this morning," Robert Gibbs, Obama's spokesman, told CNN
on Tuesday.
In a defiant shot across the GOP bow, Obama, who returned to
hometown Chicago late Monday, planned to hold his wrap-up rally in
St. Paul, Minn., at the arena that will be the site of the
Republican National Convention in September.
Clinton returned to New York, the state she represents in the
Senate, planning an end-of-primary evening rally in Manhattan after
a grueling campaign finale as she pushed through South Dakota on
Monday.
"I'm just very grateful we kept this campaign going until South
Dakota would have the last word," she said at a restaurant in
Rapid City in one of her final campaign stops. Polls suggested
Obama would win both South Dakota and Montana.
She still sounded buoyant. Her biggest booster and most tireless
campaigner, husband Bill Clinton, didn't. "This may be the last
day I'm ever involved in a campaign of this kind," the former
president said somberly as he stumped for her in South Dakota.
Ahead of Tuesday's concluding primaries, Obama sought to set the
stage for reconciliation, praising Clinton's endurance and
determination and offering to meet with her - on her terms - "once
the dust settles" from their race.
"The sooner we can bring the party together, the sooner we can
start focusing on McCain in November," Obama told reporters in
Michigan. He said he spoke with Clinton on Sunday when he called to
congratulate her on winning the Puerto Rico primary, most likely
her last hurrah.
That fueled speculation for a "dream ticket" in which Clinton
would become Obama's running mate - but neither camp was suggesting
that was much of a possibility.
In the AP interview, Obama was asked when he would start looking
for a running mate.
"The day after I have gotten that last delegate needed to
officially claim the nomination, I'll start thinking about vice
presidential nominees," he said. "It's a very important decision,
and it's one where I'm going to have to take some time."
Clinton finished a whirlwind four days of campaigning that took
her from New York to Puerto Rico to South Dakota and back. For a
campaign pushing against long odds, it was a show of determination.
The former first lady, suffering from a recurrent cough, had to
cede the microphone to her daughter Chelsea twice Monday as she
struggled to recover her voice. Chelsea promptly took the
opportunity - to discuss health care.
--
Associated Press writers Kathy Hoffman, Kim Hefling, Beth Fouhy,
Nedra Pickler, Jim Kuhnhenn, Stephen Ohlemacher and Jim Davenport
contributed to this report.
