Hillary Clinton now faces a growing perception of inevitable loss -- not win. (AP Photo)

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Hillary Clinton is vowing to continue her presidential bid despite mounting pressure to quit following a shaky performance in Indiana and a blow-out loss to Democratic rival Barack Obama in North Carolina.

On Wednesday, Clinton appeared at Shepherdstown University in Shepherdstown, W.V. to say that she continues to be in the fight. Her campaign issued a donor plea from Clinton that said with 28 days left, “I’m going to keep fighting for what I believe in until every voter has had his or her say.”

But the list of people pushing her toward the exit now is growing, and added to it Wednesday was one of her earliest backers, 1972 presidential candidate George McGovern, who said he now is supporting Obama.

“I don’t see how Senator Clinton could prevail” to win the nomination, the 85-year-old former senator told FOX News.

McGovern said Clinton’s exit is important to ensure the upper hand in November.

“I think it’s important for Democrats to be united,” McGovern said.

McGovern joins last week’s high-profile defection of former Democratic Party chairman Joe Andrew and February’s stinging departure of Georgia Rep. John Lewis.

Even before McGovern’s announcement, Clinton cut loose a planned day of rest Wednesday to start up the campaign machine for one final push. Six nomination contests remain over the next four weeks, 217 pledged delegates are still up for grabs and 269 superdelegates are undecided.

The campaign reacted coolly to the news.

“We appreciate his friendship, but we think voters in the upcoming states should have their votes counted,” said Clinton spokesman Jay Carson.

Clinton now aims to keep hope alive among a jittery group of superdelegates who have stuck with her so far. To do so she’ll need to pull together a string of fourth-quarter miracles while dangling the prospect of bringing back into the fold votes from Florida and Michigan — which were written off in a pre-primary party dispute.

That hope is diminishing quickly after the latest balloting. Clinton eked out a 1.7 percent win over Obama in Indiana, lower than pre-election polls predicted, taking the Hoosier State 50.8-49.1. But in the Tar Heel State, Obama racked up a 15 percentage point win, winning it 57-42.

Seeing the end in sight, Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod appeared to be shifting the campaign toward a general election fight, saying presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain has “run free for some time now” because of Democratic preoccupation with the ongoing primary fight.

“I don’t think we’re going to spend time solely in primary states,” he said. “We have multiple tasks here.”

Clinton has a chance at winning a few of the remaining states, but the likelihood of her taking the delegates she needs to win is nearly insurmountable. She is favored to win next week in West Virginia, as well as the May 20 contest in Kentucky, and the June 1 contest in Puerto Rico. But her chances are slim in Oregon on May 20, and in the last two primaries in Montana and South Dakota on June 3.

Still, she argues the count is close. Clinton touched on this theme Tuesday night, citing the “he wins one, she wins one” nature of the campaign.

But to reach the number of 2,025 total delegates needed to clinch the nomination, the New York senator would need to take 349 of the 486 total pledged delegates and superdelegates still on the table or undecided, which includes 16 pledged delegates that have yet to be cast in North Carolina.

“Absent a comfortable win in Indiana, it’s hard to see how the Clinton campaign can go forward from here,” FOX News contributor Karl Rove said, noting the results from Tuesday’s contests seemed to signal the end of the primary race and the beginning of the general election campaign.

“It’s gonna be much harder for her tomorrow,” Democratic strategist Bob Beckel said late Tuesday.

The Clinton campaign showed no signs of letting up even as it fought rumors that it was holding a “crisis” meeting with superdelegates on Wednesday to keep them from jumping to Obama.

The campaign, which canceled Clinton’s Wednesday morning show appearances, confirmed it will meet superdelegates but said it’s not anything unusual. Aides say the outcome of Tuesday’s primaries changes nothing and the race moves on to the remaining six contests.

West Virginia will vote next Tuesday. In the middle of the night, the campaign announced Clinton would travel to the Mountain State first thing on Wednesday morning for campaign events.

“It’s so close,” Clinton said during her rally in Indianapolis. “These next primaries are another test. I’m going to work my heart out in West Virginia and Kentucky this month, and I intend to win them in November in the general election.”

She declared she’s going “full speed” to the White House and touted her win in Indiana.

For his part, Obama was enjoying time off the trail on Wednesday, relaxing at home in Chicago before returning to Washington, D.C., late in the day. Later in the week, he was to travel to Oregon, where he appears to hold the advantage, and then to West Virginia and Kentucky, where Clinton now leads.

Both candidates will inevitably turn their attention to superdelegates in the final days or weeks of the campaign. Clinton was still leading the superdelegate count in the middle of the night, 271-256, but combined with pledged delegates, she was behind overall 1,840-1,688.

For the first time in the race, more undeclared superdelegates remained than pledged delegates left on the primary calendar.

With odds against Clinton, her campaign is drafting a battle plan to lobby superdelegates, sources inside the campaign told FOX News. Those plans include using public rallies, direct mail and even TV spots to generate broader public support for undecided superdelegates to side with Clinton.

She got a small boost Wednesday from Rep. Brad Ellsworth of Indiana, who announced that “if it comes down to the convention, I will support the candidate 8th District voters chose unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise.”

Undecided superdelegate David Parker, an attorney in North Carolina, also said he isn’t making a commitment yet.

“I’m going to wait until at least June 4. The South is getting together, southern (Democratic National Committee) members are getting together in Mobile, Ala., on June 24 and we’ll have a conversation at that time. I may wait until then just to see what’s happening in the rest of the South,” he said.

Clinton also called on the party “to count all the votes” in direct reference to Michigan and Florida, which the Democratic National Committee penalized by stripping them of their delegations for holding their contests before Super Tuesday, Feb. 5. Clinton said Tuesday the nominee shouldn’t be chosen “by 48 states.”

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Illinois senator’s campaign is ready to make its case to superdelegates too.

“We’re gonna add popular votes tonight, we’re gonna add pledged delegates tonight and from now forward there are more superdelegates at stake than delegates. You’ll see a lot of emphasis put on calling and courting them,” he told FOX News.

Democratic Pollster Doug Schoen said he doesn’t think Clinton’s campaign will be drastically affected by Tuesday’s results.

“She won a victory, albeit a narrow victory,” he said. “The nomination process hasn’t played itself out. It’s supposed to go through June 3 for a reason.”

But many other pundits are questioning whether she can go on. Despite having the financial backing she needs to finish up the remaining contests, helped by a personal loan of $6.4 million in the last month, Clinton is fighting a perception problem.

“This was a big loss for her tonight, and people are a little rattled who support her,” Democratic strategist Kirsten Powers said early Wednesday morning. “I don’t think she’s going to drop out, but at the same time I think they have to reassess things.”

Obama is “clearly the presumptive presidential nominee,” said Obama backer Anna Burger, the secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union.

“Senator Obama’s commanding win in North Carolina and close showing in Indiana means he is clearly the Democratic nominee for president,” Burger said. “We’ve had a long process and the outcome is now clear.”

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RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina’s lieutenant governor easily won the Democratic primary for governor Tuesday, while in Indiana, both Democratic gubernatorial candidates told supporters they expected to win their party’s nomination as they awaited late results in a contest that was nearly a dead heat.

With 88 percent of precincts reporting, Indianapolis architect Jim Schellinger led by about 7,500 votes over former congresswoman Jill Long Thompson. They were still waiting for results from northwestern Lake County, the state’s second-most populous county with nearly 500,000 people, and from Union County in the east.

“What an exciting night, and we’re still going,” Schellinger told supporters in Indianapolis. “It’s going to be a great night for us. We’re going to win this thing.”

Long Thompson sounded a similar message to supporters in Fort Wayne, Ind.

“I want to thank all of you for sticking around for this party that I think is going to be a victory celebration,” she said.

In North Carolina, Democratic Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue cruised to victory over State Treasurer Richard Moore after a $16 million fight to replace Democratic Gov. Mike Easley, who is barred by state law from seeking a third consecutive term.

Also in North Carolina, Republican Congressman Walter Jones, who pushed to bring “freedom fries” to the U.S. House cafeteria in a symbolic protest of French opposition to the Iraq war, withstood a challenge from Joe McLaughlin. Jones, a seven-term congressman who got the idea from a North Carolina eatery, later soured on the war and McLaughlin, a former Army officer, had hoped to capitalize on discontent with his anti-war stance.

On the Republican side of the North Carolina gubernatorial race, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory beat four candidates including state Sen. Fred Smith of Johnston County, his nearest opponent.

In other races, Democratic state Sen. Kay Hagan beat Chapel Hill entrepreneur Jim Neal for the right to run against Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who breezed to a comfortable victory in her own primary Tuesday after facing token opposition from Pete Di Lauro, a former New York police officer.

And in Durham County, Democratic prosecutor Tracey Cline beat three other candidates vying to replace former District Attorney Mike Nifong, who resigned last year after being disbarred for his ill-fated prosecution of three Duke lacrosse players falsely accused of rape. There are no Republicans in the race.

Five of Indiana’s nine U.S. House members also faced primaries.

Republican Rep. Dan Burton, the state’s longest-serving congressman, fended off a challenge from emergency room physician John McGoff. McGoff had hoped to unseat Burton, who came under fire last year amid reports that he missed 19 House votes during a trip to California for a charity golf tournament. Burton has said the golf trip was a mistake.

The other big race was in the 7th District, where new Democratic Rep. Andre Carson bested seven challengers as he sought to retain the seat he won in a March special election. He will face Republican Jon Elrod in November.

Carson replaced his grandmother, Rep. Julia Carson, who died in December after 11 years in Congress.

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GRAND FORKS, N.D. — Two months after North Dakota’s primary, the state’s Democratic party still managed to attract Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton for the opening day of its convention Friday.

“Some people think the Democrats can’t win in North Dakota, so we shouldn’t put too much time in here,” Obama told a crowd of more than 15,000. “I tell you what, we didn’t fly over North Dakota. We landed.”

Clinton, who spoke an hour later, pledged to stand up for middle- and working-class voters in that state and elsewhere.

“Tonight, somewhere in North Dakota and across America, janitors are cleaning up, waitresses are pouring coffee, police officers are standing guard. They need a president who will stand with them,” she said. “Tonight, families are sitting down to talk about how to keep the farm in the family or how to keep up with the bills that are mounting. How to afford the rising gas prices, commuting to work over long distances. They need a president who will deliver for them.”

Obama and Clinton both stepped away from Pennsylvania and other states with looming votes to speak to the North Dakota Democrats.

“We can’t afford to give John McCain the chance to carry on George Bush’s can’t-do, won’t-do, won’t-even-try style of politics,” Obama said. “We are a better country than that.”

North Dakota’s senior senator, Kent Conrad, was an early Obama supporter. The state ended up backing Obama overwhelmingly in its Feb. 5 caucuses. This weekend, Democrats will decide which people are sent as delegates to the party’s national convention.

That creates the chance for last-minute maneuvering by the Clinton and Obama campaigns to pick up an extra delegate or two. Clinton recently argued that pledged delegates aren’t truly required by party rules to vote for a particular candidate.

The North Dakota delegates determined by caucus are split 8-5 for Obama. In addition, six of the state’s seven unpledged superdelegates are backing the Illinois senator.

In his speech, delivered in a packed football arena, Obama mocked the Bush administration and stressed the midwestern roots of his mother and her parents. He even tried to adopt the local slang by exclaiming “Uff da” — a Scandinavian phrase that roughly translates to “wow.”

Obama also mocked himself when accepting a hockey stick in honor of the University of North Dakota’s team, the Fighting Sioux. He promised to give it a place of honor in his office but never to use it “because my hockey game is worse than my bowling.”

For her part, Clinton vowed to press on with her campaign even though she narrowly trails Obama in the popular vote and among pledged delegates.

She again resisted calls to drop out of the race and compared herself to the university’s hockey team, which is headed to the national college championship tournament.

“Can you imagine if the Fighting Sioux had played the Gophers to a tie on Sunday and then given up?” she said to boos. “They kept fighting and that’s why they are going to the Frozen Four in Denver next week. I’m still fighting, and if you stand with me tomorrow we will fight on to victory.”

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FARGO, N.D. — North Dakota State University is investigating complaints about a campus skit in which a white student in blackface portrayed Barack Obama receiving a lap dance.

The same skit, part of a charity fundraiser held at a campus theater, also featured a depiction of cowboys having sex with each other, witnesses told The Forum newspaper, which first reported the backlash Friday.

“We’re trying to find out the right approaches for accountability, but at the same time try to heal wounds that have occurred and allow the campus to move ahead,” Janna Stoskopf, NDSU’s dean of students, told The Associated Press on Friday.

The March 18 skit involving the NDSU Saddle and Sirloin Club was performed at the Mr. NDSU Pageant, which is sponsored by the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority and raises money for diabetes research.

People who attended it said a pageant contestant from Saddle and Sirloin dressed as a woman from the Internet video “I Got a Crush on Obama” and performed a strip tease for another student, who was wearing dark makeup and an afro wig.

In the background, two male students dressed as cowboys simulated anal sex while holding an Obama sign that one student ripped at the conclusion of the 30-second performance, the Forum reported.

“That seems to be consistent with what’s been described to me,” Stoskopf said.

The Obama campaign had no comment Friday. Obama is to speak at North Dakota Democrats’ state convention in Grand Forks next week.

Josh Reimnitz, who is the NDSU student body president and saw the skit, called it “totally tasteless” and said he and other audience members were shocked.

“Honestly, I still don’t know what the intention of the skit was,” he said. “It was very silent, and there were some boos. People were looking at each other, not knowing how to act.”

The skit does not reflect attitudes on campus, Reimnitz said.

“We’re still going to be proactive in student government, as far as diversity education and training,” he said. “If there are pockets out there that we don’t know about, we want to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

NDSU President Joseph Chapman was not immediately available for comment. Messages left by the AP for Russell Danielson, adviser of the Saddle and Sirloin Club, and Malika Carter, an NDSU assistant director of multicultural student services were not immediately returned.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re rural. It doesn’t matter if you’re from Fargo or Beulah, N.D.,” said Joy Rice, a black Fargo resident and a member of the city’s human relations commission. “You still need to respect people of color, in all aspects of life. This is a form of racism, and it’s really taking a step back.”

The skit follows a complaint filed against a sorority at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, where guests wore Indian costumes and red paint on their faces and bodies.

“This falls into the same category,” Rice said of the NDSU skit. “It’s just as bad.”

Stoskopf said she expected the investigation could take until May 9, the end of the school year.

“One of the issues here is how do we balance what our policies and expectations about behavior are with the issue of freedom of speech,” Stoskopf said. “Where does all of that get us?”

NDSU has 10,403 undergraduates. The student body is 92 percent white, while 1.5 percent identify themselves as black or African-American.

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REPUBLICANS

John McCain: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma

Mitt Romney: Alaska, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Utah

Mike Huckabee: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia

DEMOCRATS

Hillary Clinton: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee

Barack Obama: Alaska, Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Utah

STATE

Alabama: Barack Obama, Mike Huckabee

Alaska: Barack Obama, Mitt Romney

Arizona: Hillary Clinton, John McCain

Arkansas: Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee

California: Hillary Clinton, John McCain

Colorado: Barack Obama, Mitt Romney

Connecticut: Barack Obama, John McCain

Delaware: Barack Obama, John McCain

Georgia: Barack Obama, Mike Huckabee

Idaho (D): Barack Obama

Illinois: Barack Obama, John McCain

Kansas (D): Barack Obama

Massachusetts: Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney

Minnesota: Barack Obama, Mitt Romney

Missouri: Barack Obama, John McCain

Montana (R): Mitt Romney

New Jersey: Hillary Clinton, John McCain

New Mexico: TBD

New York: Hillary Clinton, John McCain

North Dakota: Barack Obama, Mitt Romney

Oklahoma: Hillary Clinton, John McCain

Tennessee: Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee

Utah: Barack Obama, Mitt Romney

West Virginia (R): Mike Huckabee

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Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were victorious in North Dakota’s presidential caucuses.

Obama was the winner over Hillary Rodham Clinton on the Democratic side.

Romney prevailed over front-runner John McCain, an Arizona senator, as well as Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee.

With 100 percent of the GOP vote counted, Romney beat McCain 36 percent to 23 percent. Paul had 21 percent and Huckabee finished with 20 percent.

Meanwhile, with 25 of North Dakota’s 47 precincts reporting, Obama had 5,453 votes, or 58 percent. Clinton had 3,717 votes, or 40 percent. The remainder went to John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel and a handful of write-ins.

Republicans packed into the Bismarck Elks Lodge in Bismarck tonight to vote for their favorite presidential candidate. The building was so jammed that GOP leaders asked people not to hang around after voting — so others would have space.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.