Clinton campaign says not conceding as race nears end
2008-06-03

Nations U.S. States South Dakota Montana People Barack Obama John McCain Hillary Clinton Event US Election 2008 Category U.S. Democrat Party

Barack Obama edged closer to capturing the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday amid speculation that Hillary Clinton will soon drop her historic White House bid.

The Clinton campaign denied a report that the New York senator would say on Tuesday night -- after final voting in a grueling primary season -- that Obama has the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination.

Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe told CNN the former first lady was "absolutely not" conceding the campaign and said The Associated Press report was completely incorrect.

"The nomination fight goes on until somebody gets the magic number and that isn't there today and that is not at all what Senator Clinton is going to talk about tonight," McAuliffe said.

Citing two unidentified senior campaign officials, the AP said Clinton, who is trailing Obama in the five-month state-by-state nominating contest, would stop short of suspending or ending her bid to face Republican John McCain in the November general election.

Expectations Clinton is near conceding have been building as Democrats in the final two states -- Montana and South Dakota -- went to the polls. Voting ends in South Dakota at 7 p.m. MDT/9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT), and in Montana an hour later, with results expected shortly after.

With 31 delegates to the Democrats' August convention at stake, the two states are the last to vote. The party's battle has pitted a man who would be the first U.S. black president against a woman who would be the country's first female chief executive.

Obama needs about 35 delegates to reach the 2,118 required to capture the nomination.

The Illinois senator could hit that number as soon as Tuesday night, depending on how quickly he wins commitments from nearly 200 uncommitted superdelegates -- party officials who are free to back any candidate.

BACKING FOR OBAMA

He secured one important endorsement on Tuesday from U.S. Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the third-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives and the top-ranking black member of Congress.

"Today the process ends," Clyburn told NBC's "Today" show.

Clyburn urged other superdelegates to announce their support on Tuesday so the Democratic Party could have a clear nominee by day's end. A number of other superdelegates followed his lead.

Obama planned a victory celebration on Tuesday night to kick off the general election campaign against McCain after the South Dakota and Montana polls close. He will hold it in St. Paul, Minnesota -- the site of the Republican convention in September.

Clinton herself gave no clue about how long she would stay in a nomination race that she began as a heavy favorite but now has little chance of winning.

Campaigning in South Dakota on Monday, she said the end of the voting marked "the beginning of a new phase of the campaign" in which she will seek to convince superdelegates that she would be the strongest candidate against McCain in November.

Both Obama and Clinton will speak to a pro-Israel lobbying group in Washington on Wednesday, and Obama said he expected to be talking to Clinton again soon.

He said he told her in a phone conversation on Sunday that "once the dust settled I was looking forward to meeting with her at a time and place of her choosing."

(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan, Doina Chiacu, Thomas Ferraro, Jackie Frank and Ellen Wulfhorst; Writing by Deborah Charles and Donna Smith; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)