Analysis: Clinton continues despite dire predictions
WASHINGTON -- Hillary Rodham Clinton's showing in Tuesday's primaries and the disclosure that she loaned her campaign an additional $6.4 million fuel a growing sense that her window to the nomination is nearly closed.
"Clinton out of math, money and momentum," proclaimed the liberal website Huffington Post. "Barack Obama is all but certain to be the Democratic nominee," intoned The Economist magazine's website. The New York Post's front page featured Clinton's picture over a one-word headline: "Toast."
Pundits have written Clinton off before, of course, and she campaigned in West Virginia on Wednesday as if nothing was amiss — saying she is "staying in the race until there's a nominee."
"We were very excited about our come-from-behind victory in Indiana," she told a cheering crowd in Shepherdstown. Later, speaking to reporters, she dismissed a question about former senator George McGovern, a onetime supporter who hours before had publicly urged her to step aside.
"He has a right to make whatever decision he makes," she said.
Clinton's challenge in the final weeks is to convince party leaders she remains a viable candidate, and the campaign sought to do that Wednesday.
In a conference call with reporters, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson talked about a "path to the nomination" that involved "doing very well" in the six remaining primaries.
But after Obama won handily in North Carolina and Clinton eked out victory in Indiana, the only way she can win is if the superdelegates moved en masse to her side.
Few, if any, independent voices called that a likely scenario.
Clinton spokesman Phil Singer conceded that when the primaries are over, she would be behind by nearly 100 delegates even if the party decided to count the results from Michigan and Florida — the two states disqualified from being counted after they moved up their primary dates in violation of party rules.
After Tuesday's results, Obama leads with 1,846.5 delegates, including superdelegates, according to the Associated Press. Clinton has 1,696. That leaves Obama 178.5 delegates shy of the 2,025 needed to secure the nomination.
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