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 Americas & Beyond | June 2008 
Obama Pushes Effort to Claim Victory Tonight
 Adam Nagourney - The New York Times
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| | Senator Barak Obama has sights set on declaring victory tonight. (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP) | | |
Senator Barack Obama's campaign began a concerted effort on Monday to rally undecided superdelegates around him so he can claim the Democratic presidential nomination after the primaries end on Tuesday night.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton invited fund-raisers and other supporters to an election-night rally in New York City where, aides said, she was prepared to deliver what they described as a farewell speech that summed up the case for her candidacy.
They said Mrs. Clinton was not likely to withdraw from the race on Tuesday night, probably waiting until later in the week, once Mr. Obama's victory appeared clear.
Sensing an opportunity to shut down the nominating contest, Obama campaign advisers said that they were orchestrating an endorsement of Mr. Obama by at least eight Senate and House members who had pledged to remain uncommitted until the primaries ended, and that the endorsements would come the moment the South Dakota polls closed on Tuesday night.
The group will be led by Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, who on Monday met with three other uncommitted Democratic senators - Ken Salazar of Colorado, Thomas R. Carper of Delaware and Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland - at the offices of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in what Mr. Salazar called a unity session.
Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the No. 3 Democrat in the House and the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, set his formal endorsement of Mr. Obama for Tuesday, and he was urging others to do the same. Other lawmakers and party insiders were also sending word that they would be falling in line behind Mr. Obama beginning as early as Tuesday morning.
"It's time," said Senator Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, one of the senators who have not made a public choice in the race, signaling that he too would announce his endorsement within days.
While Mr. Obama was moving into position to claim the delegates needed for the nomination, two top Democratic officials said those sympathetic to Mrs. Clinton were making calls of their own to encourage lawmakers to hold off at least until Wednesday to make any announcements in deference to Mrs. Clinton.
The activity on the eve of the final contests in Montana and South Dakota left little doubt on both sides that the long competition was coming to an end. Mr. Obama told reporters on Monday what he had told Mrs. Clinton when he called her on Sunday to congratulate her on winning the Puerto Rico primary: "Once the dust settled, I was looking forward to meeting with her at a time and place of her choosing."
Mrs. Clinton has no public traveling schedule through the weekend, other than to Washington, reflecting what is, for all practical purposes, a campaign in suspension. Her associates said that no one in her campaign saw any way she could win the nomination, and that the only question now was when Mr. Obama could claim victory. The associates requested anonymity in deference to Mrs. Clinton's request for privacy.
Mrs. Clinton's decision to return to her home state to deliver her speech was made at the last minute, and thus she picked an unusual site for a major political event: the Baruch College athletics and recreation center on the East Side of Manhattan.
The most likely situation, some of Mrs. Clinton's aides said, was that she would suspend her campaign later in the week and would probably - though not definitely - endorse Mr. Obama.
On the Obama side, the rollout of the Congressional endorsements as the polls close on Tuesday night is intended to show that the party is coalescing behind him.
In an elaborately coordinated evening that will symbolize the shift from the primary to the general election, Mr. Obama will deliver his victory speech at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, the location, not coincidentally, of the Republican convention in August.
The strategy, one adviser said, was to claim the nomination Tuesday night and Wednesday morning start putting his full focus on Senator John McCain, starting with a speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, where Mr. McCain lit into Mr. Obama on Monday.
Mr. Obama's advisers estimated that, factoring in the results in Montana and South Dakota, where he appeared to be in a strong position, he needed about 25 delegates to reach the 2,118 needed to win the nomination. He gained endorsements on Monday that will give him 5.5 more superdelegate votes (the half vote is from Florida), and Mr. Obama's advisers said they would spend Tuesday rushing more superdelegates - the elected Democrats and party leaders who get berths at the convention - onto his train.
"We're trying to get the number as quickly as possible," Mr. Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, said on Monday. "We are trying to convince as many as possible to come out tomorrow."
Mr. Obama's aides were wary of trying to raise expectations about his performance. Still, asked if Mr. Obama would win enough superdelegates Tuesday to put him in position to claim the nomination, Mr. Plouffe responded: "We are trying to. I don't know if we can get there."
Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, a supporter of Mr. Obama, said she had spoken to about a dozen uncommitted superdelegates on Monday on Mr. Obama's behalf. "We are hopeful and optimistic that a lot of movement will be tomorrow, but you can't count on it until it happens," she said.
Representative Jason Altmire, Democrat of Pennsylvania, said he wanted to give Mrs. Clinton her due until at least Wednesday. But if the race remained fully engaged by week's end, he said, she would lose her support from superdelegates.
"We want to hear from Senator Clinton; she deserves the right to make her statement," Mr. Altmire said Monday night. "But I'm not fine with it proceeding. I think it's incredibly damaging at the end of the process for it to continue on."
Mr. Obama spent part of Monday working the phones, as did surrogates, aides and party officials, urging the uncommitted superdelegates to sign on.
Asked what his final sales pitch was, Mr. Obama said, "The sooner that we can bring the party together, the sooner we can start focusing on John McCain in November."
In a campaign stop in Michigan on Monday, Mr. Obama lavished praise upon Mrs. Clinton, in what aides said was a signal intended to set the tone for how his supporters should treat her in the coming days.
"Senator Clinton has run an outstanding race; she is an outstanding public servant," Mr. Obama told voters at a forum in Troy, Mich. He added, "She and I will be working together in November."
To that, the crowd of Democrats cheered. |
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