By DAPHNE RETTER, Post Correspondent
May 8, 2008
WASHINGTON - Against huge odds, Hillary Rodham Clinton pushed ahead with her White House bid yesterday, while Barack Obama looked past his fading rival and began plotting a nationwide strategy for winning the presidency.
"I'm staying in this race until there's a nominee and obviously I am going to work as hard as I can to become that nominee," a defiant Clinton said in Shepherdstown, W.Va.
Clinton, who on Tuesday was trounced in North Carolina and barely prevailed in Indiana, was to remain in West Virginia today ahead of that state's primary this coming Tuesday. She'll then fly to South Dakota and Oregon, which both hold their contests on May 20.
Clinton also declared that the delegate threshold for securing the nomination should be 2,209 or 2,210 delegates, a number that would include delegates from Michigan and Florida.
Most experts say the number is much lower, 2,025, which would put Obama less than 200 delegates from locking up the nomination.
"I think that there are a number of ways to resolve this but it does need to be resolved," Clinton said.
"All I've said is, you've got to figure out how to seat the delegates from Florida and Michigan that is a reflection of the votes that they cast, because those were legitimate elections and they deserve to have those votes counted."
Meanwhile, Obama's campaign mapped out a general-election strategy that will involve early campaigning in battleground states that have already held primaries.
"We're going to put a lot of states in play," said David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager.
He suggested this would include stepped-up efforts in Florida and Michigan "to get them up to par with the other states."
Neither Obama nor Clinton campaigned in those two states because of Democratic Party sanctions on them for holding earlier-than-authorized primaries. The seating of delegates from those states remains a matter of dispute between the two camps.
Obama was enjoying a rare down day in Chicago before returning to Washington late last night.
Likely Republican presidential nominee John McCain has "run free for some time now" because of Democratic preoccupation with the ongoing primary fight, said Obama strategist David Axelrod.
"I don't think we're going to spend time solely in primary states," he said. "We have multiple tasks here." With Post Wire Services
