Clinton: 'This is Nowhere Near Over'

ABC News ^ | May 19, 2008 | Eloise Harper

[mdittmar]

ABC News' Eloise Harper Reports: Senator Hillary Clinton, in advance of the possibility that the Obama campaign will declare victory on Tuesday based on an advantage in pledged delegates, told a crowd Monday morning that a Democratic nominee will not be determined by tomorrow. 

"This is nowhere near over. None of us is going to have the number of delegates we're going to need to get to the nomination. Although I understand – my opponents and his supporters are going to claim that - and the fact is we have to include Michigan and Florida." Clinton continued, "We cannot claim we have a nominee based on 48 states, particularly two states that are so important for us to win in the fall. So part of our challenge is making sure that we nominate the person most able to win. And I believe that I'm the stronger candidate."

Clinton said later in her speech, "I'm gonna make my case and I'm gonna make it until we have a nominee - but were not going to have one today and we're not going to have one tomorrow and we're not going to have one the next day. And if Kentucky turns out tomorrow, I will be closer to that nomination."

Clinton also added, as she first mentioned Sunday night at a fundraiser in Kentucky, that she has endured this long campaign so that a Democrat could win the presidency. Careful not to say Obama could not win the general election, Clinton implied, as she has in the past, that he is a riskier choice saying, "anybody who is really analyzing this and saying 'OK we did not go through this long campaign to lose in the fall.' We can not afford to have four more years of a Republican president."

Speaking at a high school in Maysville, KY, Clinton supported that argument saying, "the states that I have won total 300 electoral votes. If we had the same rules as the Republicans, I would be the nominee right now. We have different rules so what we've got to figure out is who can win 270 electoral votes. My opponent has won states totaling 217 electoral votes. Now we both have some states that are going to be hard for us to win in the fall like Texas and Oklahoma. But I still have a cushion if you look at all the states that I've won and take out those that may not be in our column come the fall. My opponent has 217 electoral votes including places like Alaska and Idaho and Utah and Kansas and Nebraska. And many of his votes and his delegates come from caucus states which have a relatively low turnout."

Clinton asked for a big turnout tomorrow saying, "if Kentucky votes big tomorrow we are gonna to keep going, and were gonna keep fighting and we are going to keep making our case because you cant win the presidency without winning Kentucky."

[PGalt]

Hillarious!