Officials: Clinton will concede race to Obama
By BETH FOUHY and TOM RAUM Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton will concede Tuesday night that Barack Obama has the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, campaign officials said, effectively ending her bid to be the nation's first female president.

The former first lady will stop short of formally suspending or ending her race in her speech in New York City. Obama is 40 delegates shy of clinching the nomination, but he is widely expected to make up the difference Tuesday with superdelegate support and votes in South Dakota and Montana. Once he reaches the magic number of 2,118, Clinton will acknowledge that he has secured the necessary delegates to be the nominee.

She will pledge to continue to speak out on issues like health care. But for all intents and purposes, the two senior officials said, the campaign is over.

Most campaign staff will be let go and will be paid through June 15, said the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge her plans.

The advisers said Clinton has made a strategic decision to not formally end her campaign, giving her leverage to negotiate with Obama on various matters including a possible vice presidential nomination for her. She also wants to press him on issues he should focus on in the fall, such as health care.

Universal health care, Clinton's signature issue as first lady in the 1990s, was a point of dispute between Obama and the New York senator during their epic nomination fight.

Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton heaved toward the finish line in their exhausting Democratic presidential odyssey with Obama poised to claim victory and Clinton facing the prospects of having to abandon a quest that once seemed a sure shot.

Obama said there were a lot of superdelegates who have been private supporters of his but wanted to respect the process by not endorsing until the final primaries were done.

"We're still working the phones and we're still talking to people ... so we'll certainly have to wait until a little later tonight to see what the final tally is, but we certainly feel good waking up this morning," Robert Gibbs, Obama's communication director, told CNN Tuesday.

Not to be outdone, Republican John McCain will essentially kick off his campaign for the November election Tuesday night with a prime time speech in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner, La.

And while both Democratic candidates forged ahead on Monday in full-bore campaigning, neither Obama nor Clinton planned to be in either primary state on election night.

In a defiant shot across the GOP bow, Obama, who returned to hometown Chicago late Monday, planned to hold his wrap-up rally in St. Paul, Minn., at the arena that will be the site of the Republican National Convention in September.

Clinton returned to New York, the state she represents in the Senate, planning an end-ofprimary evening rally in Manhattan after a grueling campaign finale as she pushed through South Dakota on Monday.

The former first lady has given no hint of quitting the race, and she has said repeatedly she may continue her candidacy even beyond the end of the primaries.

"I'm just very grateful we kept this campaign going until South Dakota would have the last word," she said at a restaurant in Rapid City in one of her final campaign stops.

She still sounded buoyant. Her biggest booster and most tireless campaigner, husband Bill Clinton, didn't. "This may be the last day I'm ever involved in a campaign of this kind," the former president said somberly as he stumped for her in South Dakota.

Ahead of Tuesday's concluding primaries, Obama sought to set the stage for reconciliation, praising Clinton's endurance and determination and offering to meet with her - on her terms - "once the dust settles" from their race.

"The sooner we can bring the party together, the sooner we can start focusing on McCain in November," Obama told reporters in Michigan. He said he spoke with Clinton on Sunday when he called to congratulate her on winning the Puerto Rico primary, most likely her last hurrah.

That fueled speculation for a "dream ticket" in which Clinton would become Obama's running mate - but neither camp was suggesting that was much of a possibility.

"The day after I have gotten that last delegate needed to officially claim the nomination, I'll start thinking about vice presidential nominees. I think it's likely to come this week," he said. "It's a very important decision, and it's one where I'm going to have to take some time."

Robert Gibbs, a top Obama aide, said late Monday the seemingly endless Democratic contest could be resolved "in the next 24 to 48 hours."

Clinton left South Dakota for New York late Monday, the final leg of a whirlwind four days that took her from New York to Puerto Rico, to South Dakota and back. For a campaign pushing against long odds, it was a show of determination.

Democratic officials said that if Obama failed to gain the needed 2,118 delegates by Tuesday night, one possibility under discussion was for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi to issue a statement on Wednesday urging superdelegates to state their preferences as soon as possible.