Clinton Vows To Fight On in Campaign

WASHINGTON — Senator Clinton is vowing to keep up her fight for the Democratic presidential nomination even as her prospects for victory appear dimmed.

Yesterday, the former first lady's aides disclosed that she had lent her campaign another $6.4 million to stay on television in recent days; a prominent supporter and party elder, Senator McGovern, defected from her ranks and urged her to drop out of the race, and Senator Obama announced the endorsement of four more superdelegates in a sign that Democratic leaders are beginning to coalesce around his candidacy.

Despite the setbacks, Mrs. Clinton was publicly undeterred. "I'm staying in this race until there is a nominee, and obviously I'm going to work as hard as I can to become that nominee," she told reporters after a campaign event in West Virginia, which holds the next primary on May 13. She returned to Washington after the event for a series of meetings with uncommitted superdelegates.

Her comments came a day after she eked out a two-point victory in Indiana and lost decisively in North Carolina, results that allowed Mr. Obama to widen his lead in delegates.

Although Mrs. Clinton and her aides sought to paint the Indiana win as a come-from-behind upset, the two primaries were widely seen as her last best chance to persuade undecided superdelegates that Mr. Obama was irreversibly damaged by controversy in recent weeks and rendered unelectable in the fall.

Aiming for a positive spin on Tuesday's results, Mrs. Clinton's chief strategist, Geoffrey Garin, touted her gains among white voters in North Carolina, a state Mr. Obama carried by 14 points.

"We think the results last night strengthened the case that she will be the strongest candidate for the Democratic Party in November," Mr. Garin told reporters in a conference call.

Yet merely hours after the final votes were tallied in Indiana, Mr. McGovern, the Democratic nominee in 1972, had decided Mrs. Clinton was finished.

"I think it's pretty clear there's no way she can win that nomination," Mr. McGovern, who endorsed Mrs. Clinton in October, told The New York Sun in a telephone interview yesterday. "The time has come for the Democrats to unite behind one candidate."

Mr. McGovern said he had a "friendly conversation" with President Clinton yesterday morning, describing him as "disappointed" but not angry.

"He thinks she put on a good campaign," he said. Mr. Clinton gave no indication whether Mrs. Clinton was considering dropping out and did not try to change his mind, Mr. McGovern said. When asked if the former president indicated he thought Mrs. Clinton could still win, Mr. McGovern replied: "He did not say that."

Mr. Obama picked up four superdelegates in the wake of his showing on Tuesday, including two from North Carolina. One superdelegate, a Virginia state legislator, Jennifer McClellan, switched her support from Mrs. Clinton to Mr. Obama, the Associated Press reported.

In a lone piece of good news for Mrs. Clinton, a North Carolina superdelegate, Rep. Heath Shuler, announced his support for her. Mr. Shuler had previously said he would endorse the candidate who carried his district, which Mrs. Clinton did.

The Obama campaign voiced confidence in a conference call with reporters, characterizing the results on Tuesday as a clear victory. "Last night Barack Obama took a giant and decisive stride towards the nomination," a top supporter, Senator Kerry of Massachusetts, said, adding that the outcome had "fundamentally changed" the race.

Mr. Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, said Mr. Obama's 172-pledged-delegate lead was a "high water mark" for the campaign. "We can see the finish line here," he said.

The Clinton campaign said it is looking to a May 31 meeting of the Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee, where a group of party insiders will decide on challenges to the sanctions against Florida and Michigan. The national party stripped both states of their delegates to the nominating convention after they flouted party rules by holding primaries in January.

Mrs. Clinton won both elections, and though they were largely uncontested, she is pushing to have the delegations seated.

A decision to include the Florida and Michigan delegates, according to those results, could cut Mr. Obama's lead by 58 delegates, the Clinton campaign says, and it now stands as her only real hope of closing the gap.

A more immediate concern for Mrs. Clinton may be money. Her aides said she had loaned her campaign an additional $6.4 million over three installments in recent weeks, including a last-minute check for more than $400,000 just two days before the elections in Indiana and North Carolina. She pleaded for more contributions from supporters in her speech on Tuesday night and in an e-mail yesterday, and she attended a fund-raiser in Washington last night. Her latest moves bring to $11.4 million the total amount she has loaned her campaign this year, and Mr. Wolfson said she may cut more checks if the need arises.

Top Clinton supporters in New York said they supported her decision to stay in the race, but there were no predictions of victory.

"It's her decision to make, and I'll accept what decision she makes," Senator Schumer said, according to the Associated Press.

The Queens Democratic chairman, Rep. Joseph Crowley, said it would be "unfair" for voters in the remaining states not to have a say. "We have to let this process play out," he told the Sun. "Nothing decisive happened last night."

Rep. Gregory Meeks of Queens said: "This is the fourth quarter. The game ain't over yet."

"I'm with her as long as the game is going on. We'll see what happens," he added, although he acknowledged that "at some point there will probably be conversations" about ending the campaign and bringing the party together.