Hillary Clinton says "It is not over 'til it's over"
RAPID CITY, South Dakota (Reuters) - It's almost over,isn't it? That seems to be all anyone wants to know from theSen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, but the onlyperson who truly knows isn't telling.
"I'm sort of a day-at-a-time person, and we'll see whenTuesday and the day after Tuesday comes," Clinton said on boarda late-night flight to South Dakota, where she planned to spendthe last full day of the primary season campaigning.
The last two Democratic primaries are on Tuesday in SouthDakota and Montana.
"My political obituary has yet to be written, and we'regoing forward," Clinton said. "It is not over 'til it's over."
By most accounts, it is over.
Barack Obama, who holds what experts are calling aninsurmountable lead in delegates for the Democraticpresidential nomination, plans a rally on Tuesday to launch hiscampaign for the November election against Republican JohnMcCain.
Clinton's political obituary has been written many times."The End" declared the online Drudge Report under a photographof Clinton campaigning in Puerto Rico at the weekend.
The same campaign trip inspired a headline on the onlinemagazine Salon.com saying: "Clinton seemed to be campaigning inan alternate reality."
As the nomination moved likely beyond Clinton's reach, herstaff was busily declaring her victorious.
"She has more votes," spokesman Mo Elleithee insisted inPuerto Rico. "Hillary Clinton has received more votes than anyother Democrat in this race for president."
That is a controversial statement since it includes votetotals in Michigan, where Obama's name was not on the ballot,and in Florida, where neither candidate campaigned. It alsoleaves out states won by Obama that used a caucus system whereindividual votes are not tallied.
In any case, the popular vote does not count in thenominating process. What counts is delegates to the nationalconvention and Obama leads both in elected delegates andsuperdelegates who are free to support whomever they like.
MISTY-EYED
"One thing about superdelegates is that they can changetheir minds," Clinton reminded reporters after the Puerto Ricoprimary, which she won by a wide margin.
The Clinton campaign, which wants to convincesuperdelegates that she is the stronger candidate againstMcCain, hoped to use the Puerto Rico result to support itsargument but lower-than-expected turnout weakened the case.
Other cracks were appearing in a campaign that had stayedremarkably optimistic despite the political reality.
"I'm starting to get a little misty-eyed," one stafferwhispered to another while Clinton visited a San Juan bakery.
The candidate, whose persistence could be viewed either asfierce determination or outright obsession, seemed to flag abit in Puerto Rico.
Her standard campaign speech lasts nearly a half hour butshe addressed a rally in San Juan for just a few minutes.
A campaign trip on the back of a truck in Puerto Rico wascut short as darkness fell and supporters along the routeceased to materialize.
Her victory party in San Juan, a city of more than 400,000,attracted only a few hundred people. Obama drew more than 2,000supporters to the South Dakota town of Mitchell, populationroughly 15,000.
(Editing by Alan Elsner)