Talking Politics

There are only two Democratic primaries left and Senator Barack Obama is ready and prepared for the final part of the race. Clinton on the other hand is determining whether or not she should stay in the race or call it quits. Many believe that she is staying in only to delay the fact that she lost.

Obama is optimistic that he will be able to claim victory Tuesday evening at a gathering in St. Paul, Minn., with superdelegates preparing to rally to his candidacy on the eve of the day’s contests in South Dakota and Montana and push him past the threshold of 2,118 delegates needed to clinch the nomination.

Clinton sent mixed signals about her plans throughout the day Monday. As her campaign recalled field staffers to New York, one adviser indicated that she would suspend, but not end, her campaign within days. But the candidate herself said she will continue to argue to the group of party insiders who will hold sway over the final outcome that her strong showing in recent contests demonstrates that she would be the more electable candidate in November.

“Tomorrow is the last day of the primaries and the beginning of a new phase in the campaign,” Clinton said in Yankton, S.D., before she prepared to depart for a Tuesday-night rally in New York. “After South Dakota and Montana vote, I will lead in the popular vote and Senator Obama will lead in the delegate count. The voters will have voted, and so the decision will fall to the delegates empowered to vote at the Democratic convention. I will be spending the coming days making my case to those delegates.”

Party leaders worked behind the scenes to establish an outcome that would limit the long-term damage from the protracted and divisive campaign, hoping to provide a quick and graceful exit for Clinton and clear the path for the first African American presidential nominee.

Campaigning Monday in Michigan, a key November battleground, Obama said he considers Clinton a valued ally in his general-election contest against Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive GOP nominee. Clinton ran “an outstanding race,” Obama told a packed crowd in this middle-class suburb of Detroit. He vowed, “She and I will be working together in November.”

At a later stop in Waterford, Obama recounted for reporters a telephone conversation he had with Clinton on Sunday in which he congratulated her for winning the Puerto Rico primary. He said he told her that “once the dust settled, I was looking forward to meeting her at a time and place of her choosing” to talk about the campaign’s next phase. In the meantime, he added, “we’ve still got two more contests to go.”

Obama said he also told Clinton that “there aren’t too many people who understand how hard she’s been working.” He added: “I’m one of them, because she and I have been on this same journey together.”

As Clinton made a final push for votes across South Dakota, her advisers said her options ranged from dropping out Tuesday night and endorsing Obama to making a final effort to convince uncommitted superdelegates that she would be a stronger rival to McCain.

But it was clear that Monday’s final lap was bittersweet for the Clintons. Supporters greeted her outside a Rapid City diner with rapturous praise and encouragement, along with some tears. “Keep fighting!” one woman urged the senator from New York. Another woman, Margaret Dimock, sobbed as she told Clinton about lifelong medical problems that have left her uninsured. “Don’t get discouraged. Keep the faith,” Clinton said, instructing her staff to take down the woman’s name and address.

If not Tuesday, Obama aides are confident that the nomination will be secured Wednesday or Thursday, as party leaders begin to close ranks around Obama. Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean have all urged a speedy end to the contest after voting is concluded, and many of their colleagues expect them to lead the way in preventing a prolonged standoff.

“There are a lot of superdelegates who are waiting for the last couple of contests, but I think that they are going to be making decisions fairly quickly after that,” Obama told reporters in Waterford. “My sense is that between Tuesday and Wednesday, that we’ve got a good chance of getting the number that we need to win the nomination.”