Supporters of Barack Obama backed away on Sunday from calls for Hillary Clinton to drop out of the presidential race as Democrats faced a long summer of bitter fighting to win the party's White House nomination.
In an interview published on Sunday in The Washington Post, Clinton said she was in the race to stay and if needed would fight all the way to the late August nominating convention that picks a candidate to face presumptive Republican nominee John McCain in the November election.
"I think the race should continue," said New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a former Democratic presidential candidate who has backed Obama. "She has every right to stay in the race. She's run a very good campaign." Some major Obama supporters have recently called for New York Senator Clinton, a former first lady, to drop out of the race, citing the Illinois senator's leads in the popular vote, states won and convention delegates who choose the nominee.
But Clinton has used those calls to rally her supporters, saying the Washington insiders are trying to force her out before all Democrats have voted. She also stressed the need for new votes in Florida and Michigan, whose earlier primary votes were rejected because they violated party rules.
"I have no intention of stopping until we finish what we started and until we see what happens in the next 10 contests and until we resolve Florida and Michigan," Clinton said in the Post interview conducted on Saturday. "And if we don't resolve it, we'll resolve it at the convention."
The Obama campaign accused Clinton of stalling by supporting a new vote that has already been rejected in both states. "We would of course support a 50-50 split," said spokeswoman Jen Psaki, which would favour Obama.
With the next big contest coming in Pennsylvania on April 22, Obama campaigned at Pennsylvania State University by feeding a bottle of milk to a calf at a dairy complex and planning a big rally later on Sunday at the school. Clinton and McCain took much of the day off.
Feeling the backlash from past comments, Obama supporters hit the Sunday morning television talk shows to play down efforts to get Clinton to quit - at least before the final nomination contests on June 3.
But after that, with neither candidate likely to have the 2,024 delegates needed for nomination, they wanted some quick resolution so the fight does not last all summer. The outcome will probably lie in the hands of several hundred "superdelegates" - party leaders and elected officials who can vote for either candidate.
"After June 3, it's important that Democrats come together and not be so divided as we have been," Richardson said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "But I think it's important that, at the end of the June 3 date, we look at who has the most delegates, who has the most popular vote, who has the most states."
That would most likely favour Obama. But Clinton backers did not see the need to hurry.
"Neither Senator Clinton nor Senator Obama, based on what people say the math is, can get the required number of delegates. And so you have to play it out until the end. Let's not rush this game," Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, a Clinton backer, said on the CBS show. "Let's let the voters decide."
Tennessee's Democratic Governor Phil Bredesen has proposed the superdelegates get together after June 3 and make their choices between the candidates so the party can heal its wounds and start going after the Republicans.
Bredesen admitted his idea got a cool reception from top Democratic officials, including Chairman Howard Dean, and others have questioned how such a super vote could be conducted.
Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, an Obama supporter who was the party's losing presidential nominee in 2004, said the superdelegates needed to make up their minds early so Democrats can organise to beat McCain. "As a former nominee, I will tell you, this time right now is critical to us," he said on ABC's "This Week. "I think every day does give John McCain an ability to organise nationally."
Comments
Comments are closed.