Clinton takes West Va. by big margin but Obama scores 4 more delegates

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Hillary Clinton captured a commanding win Tuesday in a West Virginia landslide that likely did little to lift her longshot chances of winning the Democratic presidential nomination but succeeded in highlighting frontrunner Barack Obama's weaknesses.

"I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard," Clinton told cheering supporters at the Charleston Civic Center who had chanted "It's not over" when television networks declared her victory minutes after the polls closed. With 65 percent of precincts reporting, she led by 66 percent to 27 percent of votes cast.

"Now, there are some who have wanted to cut this race short," she said, drawing boos at the notion. "They say, 'Give up. It's too hard. The mountain is too high.' But here in West Virginia, you know a thing or two about rough roads to the top of the mountain."

Despite the huge margin of victory, exit polling showed a divided Democratic Party, with about a third of each candidate's supporters saying they would vote for Republican John McCain if their favorite is not on the November ballot.

Clinton won in a state with the kind of electorate - whiter, poorer, less educated and more rural than the rest of the nation - that Obama has had trouble attracting and would need in a November contest.

"The bottom line is this: The White House is won in the swing states and I am winning the swing states," she said. And she declared: "I want to send a message to everyone still making up their mind: I am in this race because I believe I am the strongest candidate to lead our party in November of 2008."

With Obama poised to have earned enough delegates to declare himself the Democratic nominee as early as next Tuesday, Clinton's only hope is to convince superdelegates that Obama, though prevailing among voters, would be a weak November candidate.

Having conceded the state to Clinton earlier in the week, Obama moved on to Missouri on Tuesday in a clear signal that he now views McCain as his prime rival. Missouri will be a key November battleground. Obama carried the state by a single percentage point over Clinton in its Feb. 5 primary.

The frontrunner made no mention of Clinton in a campaign event at a Cape Girardeau clothing plant where the workforce includes the kind of blue-collar voters he failed to connect with in West Virginia. He chided the calls by Clinton and McCain for a suspension of the federal gasoline tax, but mentioned only McCain by name, saying the Republican "has decided that he is running for George Bush's third term in office."

Obama scoffed at talk of deeply divided Democrats and said party members would "be able to come together quickly behind a common purpose."

But Adam Parkhomenko, founder of a group called VoteBoth, which wants Obama and Clinton on the ticket, said "the strong polarization we're seeing in swing states like West Virginia can be transformed into Democratic Party unity" if both are on the ticket.

Like Obama aides, McCain advisers were in general-election mode Tuesday night — and also ignored Clinton. Spokesman Tucker Bounds said Obama "debuted his 2008 attack playbook showing more of the same negative, partisan politics that have paralyzed Washington for too long."

Despite the lopsided win in West Virginia, Clinton still faces a daunting task, probably requiring her to capture 80 percent of the uncommitted superdelegates and about 75 percent of the pledged delegates in the six remaining contests. Clinton adviser Ann Lewis said it can be done.

"There have been so many surprises along the way in this campaign that I don't pretend to make predictions anymore, because any predictions I might have made would have been left behind. We have had one surprise after another" she said on MSNBC.

It's up to superdelegates, she said, to "use their experience and their expertise to help choose the strongest candidate to win in the fall."

Before the contest for West Virginia's 28 delegates, to be divided proportionally, Obama had 1,875.5 delegates and Clinton had 1,697. It takes 2,025 to clinch the nomination. Obama's aides believe he could reach that goal as early as next Tuesday, when Democrats in Kentucky and Oregon vote and as superdelegates continue to align with him.

There was no victory declaration from Obama, but his supporters were not as reluctant.

"This race, I believe, is over," former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer, ex-chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said in becoming one of four superdelegates who announced for Obama on Tuesday.

He declined to urge Clinton to quit, but told reporters, "There is a time we need to end it and direct ourselves to the general election. I think that time is now."

The Clinton camp, buoyed by her big win, showed no intention of shutting down. She is a heavy favorite in Kentucky, but a sizeable underdog in Oregon. Both states' primaries are next Tuesday.

Political analyst Bruce Buchanan, a University of Texas government professor, said there wasn't much for Clinton in the West Virginia win.

"I don't think it changes the likely nominee," he said, calling the win part of what eventually could be a "graceful basis for exit" from the race as well as a possible boost in her ability to impact the platform.

"And it keeps the Clinton name in the public space and still standing in case lightning strikes, that is to say Obama shoots himself in the foot in some way we can't now foresee," Buchanan said.

It also, he said, could increase Obama's "already hinted-at willingness to help her retire her campaign debts."

The Clinton campaign is $20 million in the red. It was ready with a fund-raising appeal based on her victory even before the candidate addressed supporters. And she planned to take advantage of free exposure by appearing on news programs on ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox on Wednesday.

"After tonight's tremendous victory here in West Virginia, it's clear that the pundits declaring this race over have it all wrong. The voters in West Virginia spoke loud and clear - they want this contest to go on," Clinton said in the e-mail. "I'm listening to the voters - and to you."

"We've proved conventional wisdom wrong time and again in this race," she added. "We did it again tonight in West Virginia. Let's keep going."

The results also underscored Obama's weakness among blue-collar and other Democratic voters, according to Buchanan, which he said have been evident in similar outcomes in past contests.

But it may not matter all that much in November, he predicted.

"When the choice is between Hillary and Obama, these voters go with Hillary. When the choice is between Obama and McCain, some percentage of them might go for McCain, but given their economic self-interest (Obama) ought to be able to reach many of them, if not all of them," Buchanan said.

Trailing in delegates and states won, the Clinton campaign on Tuesday avoided numbers and stuck with its message that Obama has failed to win the swing states a Democrat needs to win the White House.

"The Mountain State is used to picking winners," the Clinton campaign said in a memo entitled "Why West Virginia Matters." "Every nominee has carried the state's primary since 1976, and no Democrat has won the White House without winning West Virginia since 1916."

The first statistic results in part from the fact that West Virginia often has a late primary held long after the race is decided.

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In the memo, Clinton advisers chided Obama for trying to "dismiss today's outcome despite the fact that Senator Obama has outspent us on advertising, has more staff in the state and more than double the number of offices."

"By every measure, the Obama campaign has waged an aggressive campaign in the Mountain State," the memo said.

Howard Wolfson, Clinton's communications director, called West Virginia "a critically important swing state," noting Bill Clinton carried it in 1992 and 1996 but George W. Bush took its five electoral votes in 2000 and 2004.

But the Obama campaign noted that the Illinois senator now leads among superdelegates for the first time. Thirty superdelegates have moved into the Obama column since his big win in North Carolina - coupled with a narrower-than-expected loss in Indiana - last Tuesday.

"We have just 150 delegates to go before Barack Obama clinches the nomination," David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, said in an e-mail to Obama backers. "It's clear that the Democratic Party is uniting around Barack's candidacy."

Exit interviews with voters showed Clinton scoring heavily with her call - opposed by Obama - for suspending the federal gasoline tax (70 percent like the idea) and Obama hurt by the controversial comments of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor who has claimed the federal government created AIDS to wipe out blacks and said the terrorist attacks on the United States resulted from the nation's foreign policy.

Overall, about half of the respondents said Obama shares Wright's views to some extent. Twenty percent said Obama shares those views "a lot." Another 30 percent said Obama "somewhat" shares Wright's views.

Ken Herman's e-mail address is kherman(at)coxnwes.com

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