Clinton Looks Safe in West Virginia

Voters in West Virginia headed to the polls this morning in what is expected to be a resounding primary win for Hillary Clinton, but one that is unlikely to reshape the Democratic race.

She campaigned doggedly yesterday, clinging to her hopes that an anticipated landslide could interrupt Obama's slow glide to the Democratic nomination.

Opinion polls suggest she has more than a 30-point advantage over Obama. But Obama is now 156 delegates short of the 2,025 needed to secure the Democratic nomination. He today added three more super delegates – elected and senior Democratic party officials – to his corner.

"This race, I believe, is over," Obama supporter Roy Romer, a former Democratic national committee chairman, told reporters on a campaign conference call this morning. He said only Clinton can decide when to withdraw from the primary, but he added: "There is a time we need to end it and direct ourselves to the general election. I think that time is now."

Twenty-eight delegates are at stake in today's vote.

Obama, confident of clinching the nomination, has made just one visit to West Virginia, choosing to campaign this week in what will be key swing states in November: Missouri, Michigan and Florida.

"Our schedule reflects the fact that we are still fighting for votes and delegates in the remaining contests but also that we are going to places that are going to be competitive in the fall," Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for Obama, told reporters.

"John McCain has gone unchallenged for far too long and we're going to make sure that voters in competitive states know the choice in this election between changing Washington and the third term of George Bush's failed policies that McCain is offering."

In his sole appearance in West Virginia yesterday, Obama acknowledged Clinton was going to take the state.

He used his visit to take a shot at the Bush administration for its treatment of war veterans. "It's an outrage. And it's a betrayal - a betrayal of the ideals that we ask our troops to risk their lives for," he told a rally in Charleston, West Virginia.

The Clinton campaign sought to play up the importance of the West Virginia contest, broadcasting to the party super delegates that they shouldn't leap to support Obama.

"I think Democrats across the country tomorrow will be asking themselves why Senator Obama -- with all of his money, with all of the great press, with voters being told he was the inevitable nominee –- why did Senator Obama lose West Virginia by 15 points or so? What does it say about his candidacy at this date that he can't beat Senator Clinton in a key swing state?" Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson told NBC's Today program this morning.

Today's vote could prove awkward for Obama. An opinion poll yesterday from Suffolk University gave Clinton 60% of the vote in West Virginia against 24% for Obama. She is also projected to perform well in the Kentucky primary on May 20, where opinion polls give Clinton more than a 20-point lead.

But with Obama so close to the finishing line, attention continued to shift towards the presidential contest in November.

Only six primary contests remain in the Democratic race. The party's super delegates have, meanwhile, been steadily throwing their support behind Obama over the past week. Three more super delegates, two from his birthplace in Hawaii and one from Maine, endorsed Obama yesterday, drawing him ever closer to the party nomination.

Yesterday saw the entry of a new presidential contender for next November's contest. Bob Barr, a former Republican congressman from Georgia who opposed the war in Iraq, announced his candidacy as a libertarian candidate.

Obama and the likely Republican nominee, John McCain, have begun fighting for the green vote.

McCain made a play for environmentalists yesterday with an appearance at a wind power plant in Portland, Oregon, where he spoke of the importance of alternative energy sources, according to prepared remarks, pledging support for research on wind and solar power.

Obama faces a primary contest against Clinton in Oregon on May 20, but the intervention from the Republican senator, who is already airing green ads in the state, evidently was perceived as a bigger threat.

The Obama camp pre-empted McCain's speech by accusing him of opposing clean energy bills in the Senate.