Clinton to McCain and Obama: I'm still in race

BY GLENN THRUSH | glenn.thrush@newsday.com

May 20, 2008

LOUISVILLE, KY. - Hey guys, I'm still here.

That's Hillary Rodham Clinton's message to Barack Obama and John McCain, who spent another day lambasting each other over foreign policy - with the one-time front-runner reminding her competitors she's still running for president.

The former first lady, stumping ahead of today's doubleheader in Kentucky and Oregon, is accusing Obama of declaring himself the party's nominee prematurely.

"You can declare yourself anything, but if you don't have the votes, it doesn't matter," Clinton said yesterday in a satellite interview. "This is nowhere near over."

While Clinton campaigns here today ahead of what is shaping up as a big win for her, Obama is jetting to Iowa, site of his landmark caucus victory in January, to celebrate an expected Oregon victory.

That would give him a majority of pledged delegates gained through primaries and caucuses, a milestone he has suggested is tantamount to victory.

"Senator Obama's plan to declare himself the Democratic nominee tomorrow night in Iowa is a slap in the face to the millions of voters in the remaining primary states and to Senator Clinton's 17 million supporters," said Clinton communications chief Howard Wolfson. "Premature victory laps and false declarations of victory are unwarranted."

Obama's campaign backed off earlier statements suggesting it would declare all-out victory tonight, although campaign manager David Plouffe said in an e-mail to supporters, "The people have spoken, and they are ready for change."

Both campaigns are locked in a numbers war over the benchmark for nomination. Obama has argued he would be the de facto nominee by winning a majority of pledged delegates, but a win tonight would still leave him short of the Democratic National Committee's required 2,026 delegates.

Clinton - trying to buy herself more time - puts the line at 2,210, including unseated delegations in Michigan and Florida.

Nonetheless, Obama has plenty of reasons to feel optimistic. He won the support of five new superdelegates yesterday, pushing him close to a lead of 200 in combined superdelegates and pledged delegates. One of Obama's new supporters is West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan and a one-time opponent of civil rights legislation.

Obama has also jumped out to his biggest lead yet in the Gallup national daily tracking poll, besting Clinton 55 percent to 39 percent among Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters.

And there were numerous signs that top supporters in both campaigns are itching to shift the focus to McCain. On May 31, former vice president Al Gore will headline a DNC fundraiser thrown by high-profile donors from the Clinton and Obama camps, according to left-of-center Web site Talking Points Memo.

In addition, Patti Solis Doyle, the former chief of staff axed by Clinton for reckless spending and lax management earlier this year, is reportedly having informal talks with Obama strategist David Axelrod to back the campaign after the primaries, according to Politico.com.

But Clinton is showing few signs of quitting before the end of balloting on June 3. Clinton's campaign announced that she will be in Florida tomorrow, the same day Obama tours the state.

The races today are expected to be somewhat less down-to-the-wire than other recent primaries. According to polls, Clinton is expected to score a 20- to 30-point win in Kentucky, a largely white, largely working-class state whose demographics mirror West Virginia, which gave her a 41-point victory a week ago.

Oregon is a harder call, with some polls giving Obama a 20-point-plus lead and a pair of recent polls showing his margin shrinking to the 5-point range.

"We don't trust those polls," said a top Clinton staffer. "He's going to win by high double digits."