How Do They Say Goodbye? Clinton and Obama May Have Delicate Dance Ahead

ALBANY, Ore., May 9, 2008 — -- Although Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., shows no signs of dropping out until after the final primaries June 3, the Democratic Party is slowly but surely beginning to coalesce around Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., even as the two candidates try to navigate the delicate dance of wrapping up the primary campaign.

Today, some of the party's most influential leaders -- including some former members of President Bill Clinton's administration -- are now saying publicly that it is over for the former first lady.

At the same time, Obama wiped out Clinton's last real advantage, picking up seven superdelegates to pull ahead of Clinton on that closely watched scorecard. He now leads by every major metric -- popular vote, states won, pledged delegates and superdelegates.

As both candidates campaigned in Oregon today, Obama struggled to sound humble about the near-impossible odds Clinton now faces, begging off questions about a unity ticket with Clinton as vice president.

"Until I am the nominee, I don't want to speculate on running mates," Obama said in Beaverton, Ore. "I will say she has shown herself to be an extraordinary candidate and public servant."

Even neutral veterans of the Clinton administration are now pointing Clinton toward the exit.

"At this point, Barack is the presumptive nominee," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., the political director in Bill Clinton's White House and the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House.

"She's put up a good fight and put up a good race, but I think there's a time now where she needs to concede and unify the party," said Leon Panetta, Bill Clinton's former White House chief of staff.

But this is a sensitive time for the Democrats.

When Obama supporters such as Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., seem to denigrate Clinton -- as when he today told Bloomberg News that Clinton would not be a possible vice presidential pick for Obama -- it alienates Clinton supporters.

"I would hope that he would also give consideration to somebody that is in tune with his appeal for the nobler aspirations of the American people," Kennedy said.

Women voters saved Clinton time and again during this process. For them, she is an inspiration, as Mary Keller, a voter in South Dakota, emphasized.

"I want my chance to vote for a woman president," Keller said, "and Hillary's my choice."

"Those voices that she represents need to be heard as well," Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., said, "and it is not time for her to throw the towel in and back off. That's what they always expect from women."

Top Democrats are also concerned about Clinton's message as she leaves the stage ahead of an apparent Obama general election showdown with likely Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

"If she spends her time contrasting with Sen. McCain, drawing distinctions that help the Democratic Party, that is productive," Emanuel said. "If she does it in another way, that's not productive."

Emanuel repeated what has become a mantra among top Democrats -- that how Clinton exists the stage is paramount. They worry about the damage the Clintons may be inflicting by telling white working class voters over and over that he will lose to McCain.

"The superdelegates are gonna have to think long and hard about how badly they want to win," Bill Clinton said in West Virginia today. "If she is clearly the most electable with positions that people have finally focused on, the real difference I think is, I think she has got a real shot at this."

In a USA Today interview, Hillary Clinton made comments that seemed, to some pundits, to approach race-baiting. They were referring to an AP article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me. There's a pattern emerging here."

Appearing on MSNBC, former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards was asked if Clinton's case against Obama could cause an "insidious undermining" of Obama.

"That's a very legitimate question," Edwards said. "I think it's fine for Hillary to keep making the case for her. I think when that shifts to her contention about everything that's supposed to be wrong with him -- and I don't agree with some of what she just said, by the way -- I think that then we're starting to do damage instead of being helpful."

On NBC, Edwards called Obama "clearly the likely nominee" and said of Clinton's chances, "It's very difficult to make the math work."

"Right now, Barack Obama has the better chance" of beating McCain, Edwards said, "because it looks like he's going to be the nominee. But I think what he brings to the table is the capacity, No. 1, to unite the Democratic Party. No. 2, to bring in new voters, to bring in people who haven't been involved in the process over a long period of time, and to get people excited about this change."

One problem Clinton may be forced to confront before June 3 is cash. Her campaign is millions of dollars in debt and she loaned the campaign more than $11 million of her own money. Her top fundraisers will meet at her Washington home Wednesday, the day after the West Virginia primary.

This afternoon in Woodburn, Ore., Obama signaled he might be willing to help Clinton relieve some of that debt were she to concede.

"Historically after a campaign is done and you want to unify the party -- particularly when you've had a strong opponent -- you want to make sure you're putting that opponent in a strong position so that they can work to win an election in November," Obama said. "And so obviously, I'd want to have a broad-range discussion with Sen. Clinton about how I could make her feel good about the process and have her on the team moving forward."

That said, Obama underlined that the conversation is "premature right now; she's still actively running and we've still got business to do here in Oregon and other states."

ABC News' Andy Fies, Avery Miller, Sunlen Miller, Sarah Amos and Eloise Harper contributed to this report.