Sunday: Hillary Clinton Clinton gestures to supporters outside the Anna Marie Jarvis Home in Webster, W. Va. (AP Photo)

Email   |  

Hillary Clinton was the only candidate campaigning on Mother’s Day Sunday, taking her daughter Chelsea to church before hitting the trail in an effort to pull off an upset and win the Democratic primary nomination against the numerical odds and pundits’ predictions.

The New York senator started the day braving thunderstorms in Huntington, W.Va., to listen to a church sermon on Mother’s Day delivered by Dr. Paul Russell of First United Methodist Church. Clinton shook hands with congregants after the service.

Clinton followed that with an afternoon appearance at the home of Anna Jarvis in Grafton, W.Va., site of the original Mother’s Day celebration 100 years ago. West Virginia Democrats vote on Tuesday. Speaking afterward to a group of about 150 people in a train station, Clinton quoted some of the e-mails of support she’s gotten from people around the country.

“I guess my favorite message was from a woman named Angela. ‘Keep strong,’ she said. ‘It’s not over until the lady in the pantsuit says it is,’” Clinton said.

The strength of moms, and women in general, is a theme Clinton wants to play up as she reminds Democrats of her strong support among female voters. They have been a major source of backing for the New York senator, who wants to become the first woman president in the U.S.

Overall, white women voters have carried Clinton over Barack Obama by a 60 to 36 percent, according to exit polls. However, that lead shrinks to 54-43 percent among college-educated, white women.

Clinton’s argument in West Virginia — as well as Kentucky and Oregon, which vote in 10 days — is that she is a better candidate against presumptive Republican nominee John McCain than is her Democratic opponent, Barack Obama.

“On Tuesday, voters in West Virginia, which is a key swing state, are going to get to weigh in. We’re going to have primaries upcoming in other states after that. They’re going to have their say, too. Senator Clinton is committed to her supporters and to the voters in the upcoming states to carry this through and secure the nomination,” Clinton strategist Howard Wolfson told “FOX News Sunday.”

But even as Clinton and her team says they will fight to the finish, The Associated Press is running stories headlined “Clinton’s Fall” and ‘Clinton’s Moments,” recapping her race for the presidency with a decidedly past-tense tone.

While the wire service writes Clinton “is fighting on for a prize few believe she can win anymore,” Obama surrogates are suggesting ways in which she could politely bow out of the race while keeping the party together and not damaging Obama’s chances in the Fall.

“I know Hillary Clinton well, I know her husband well. These are great Democrats, they care about the country very much, and I’m, I’m entirely confident as I speak to you this morning that we’re going to be a very united party behind Barack Obama very, very quickly and to face the challenges that John McCain and the Republicans pose in the election in November,” Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, who briefly ran for the nomination and now backs Obama, told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Campaigning in Oregon over the weekend, Obama reveled in his new lead in superdelegates — 276-271 — but was careful to avoid any outward sign of overconfidence. He told reporters it is premature to ask whether he would offer Clinton a spot on the Fall ticket or help her erase her campaign debt, positions repeated Sunday by his chief strategist David Axelrod.

Obama did say he would want Clinton to “feel good about the process” and be “on his team,” a notion Axelrod undercut by suggesting that most superdelegates will break for Obama quickly.

“I think people, out of respect for the process and the candidates — some may withhold their judgment. But I think we’re going to — we’ve been announcing several, you know, each day for the last few days. I think we’re going to continue to — we’re going to continue to unfurl these endorsements on a regular basis here,” he said.

Even a dramatic primary win by Clinton will do little to put a dent in Obama’s overall lead in delegates.

“There’s just no math right now for Hillary Clinton. She has a case for her strategy, but doesn’t have a case for the arithmetic of it,” said FOX News contributor Susan Estrich.

Still, Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe argued the race won’t be over until June 3.

“No one is the nominee. Everyone needs to be clear, until someone gets the magic number of the delegates, 2209, you are not the nominee of the Democratic Party,” McAuliffe told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“I think most of the superdelegates will wait until the end, until everybody has voted. They want everybody to be voting in this process. And then, at that point, I think, you know who is going to make the decision. I believe we’ll be ahead in the popular vote. We’ll be within 100 on the delegates, and then who is the best to win the general election?” he asked.

FOX News’ James Rosen and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Saturday: Barack Obama speaks to voters at Summit High School in Bend, Ore. (AP Photo)

Email   |  

Barack Obama is taking “very seriously” the idea of holding town-hall style discussions alongside John McCain, his chief strategist said Sunday.

Promoted by the McCain campaign, the events would unfold as joint debates, perhaps without a moderator, and resemble the approach taken during the Abraham Lincoln-Stephen A. Douglas presidential race of 1860. They’d been seen as an opportunity for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to travel the country with his Democratic counterpart — whoever that may be.

Asked how seriously Obama is considering joint appearances, campaign adviser David Axelrod responded, “Very seriously. We take that as a serious idea. And again, we believe that is the most significant election we’ve faced in a long time.

“We’re at war. Our economy is in turmoil. And we’ve got so many challenges that the people of this country deserve a serious discourse, and it shouldn’t be limited necessarily to three kind of very regimented debates in the fall. We ought to begin sooner, and we ought to have a free-flowing conversation about where we want to take this country. So you know, we’re interested in that proposal and eager to sit down and talk about it,” he told “FOX News Sunday.”

But cordiality between McCain and Obama may be limited to logistics. Earlier this week, McCain noted that a Hamas spokesman said the terror group is hoping Obama is the next president. Obama responded to that by suggesting McCain is “losing his bearings,” language that the McCain camp called a dig at the Arizona senator’s age.

Axelrod contended the McCain camp was being oversensitive and denied Obama was touching on the age issue.

“When we say ‘losing his bearings,’ we’re talking about the fact that he promised an elevated campaign, a campaign on issues and so on, and he’s been engaged in a series of kind of gratuitous, ad hominem attacks lately. … Let’s not engage in the nonsense that he knows isn’t the fact, that he knows demeans not just Senator Obama but himself in the process. That’s what Senator Obama was referring to,” he said.

With just six contests remaining until Democratic primary season ends on June 3rd, many are counting the number of pledged delegates, superdelegates and popular vote tally to say that Obama has wrapped up the race against Hillary Clinton.

Clinton is likely to win West Virginia on Tuesday and Kentucky the following week if polls are anywhere near accurate. Her spokesman Howard Wolfson said Sunday that the race isn’t over. Clinton’s victory in the swing state of West Virginia proves once more that she is more electable than McCain in a general election.

But it was the rationale behind her argument that had drew considerable criticism this week. In an interview with USA Today, Clinton said she attracts more “hard-working Americans, white Americans” and that makes her more electable than McCain in the Fall. Critics pounded Clinton, suggesting her implication is that black Americans aren’t hard-working.

The Clinton campaign said that criticism couldn’t be further from the truth, and Axelrod also gave Clinton a pass on Sunday, calling the supposed intent of her argument not only misstated but also factually inaccurate.

“The words weren’t well chosen, but the thesis was wrong,” Axelrod said. “I don’t imagine that she chose the words as she would if you asked her that question again. And the truth is that that isn’t even the fact. In Indiana, we split voters who make $50,000 a year or less evenly. We did better among non-college-educated voters there. And the same is true in North Carolina.”

He added that he doesn’t think Clinton wants to hurt Obama’s chances for winning in the fall by turning the Democratic contest into a debate on race. He would not say whether Clinton would be considered as a possible vice presidential candidate, a scenario that Wolfson also refused to discuss.

“I think all of this discussion about V.P. is premature. We think Senator Clinton is going to be the nominee. If she’s not, it’ll be up to Senator Obama who he decides to choose. If it’s Senator Clinton, it’ll be up to her,” Wolfson said. “I haven’t discussed it with her, she hasn’t discussed it with me. I have seen no evidence of her interest in it.”

Wolfson also confirmed that the Clinton campaign is about $20 million in debt, but would not discuss efforts to retire the debt, perhaps with the help of Obama.

“Senator Clinton is going to be the nominee. When she is in the nominee, we will be in the position to retire our own debt,” Wolfson said.

Axelrod also rejected the idea that the Obama campaign would retire Clinton’s debt, saying that Obama will need the resources to run in the general election.

“She hasn’t asked, and we haven’t offered,” he said.

Bill and Hillary Clinton have posed a formidable challenge to Barack Obama. But pundits wonder how their party standing will be affected if Hillary Clinton loses the nomination. (AP Photo)

Email   |  

The Clintons have found quite a bit of success since leaving the White House. Bill Clinton earned more than $50 million in speaking fees alone, and Hillary Clinton won election and reelection to the Senate.

But no one really knows what the Clinton brand will be worth once the 2008 primary race is over.

The Clintons together have run a tireless presidential campaign that projected an image of political might, even as Hillary Clinton’s Democratic nomination went from inevitable to unlikely. In doing so, however, the couple has rattled party elders and alienated voting blocs that once held them in the highest esteem.

As Barack Obama appears poised to clinch the Democratic nomination, many ponder if the Clintons will ever bounce back to be the power duo they were at the start of the campaign.

“It’s never gonna be the same, it’s never gonna be what it was,” Democratic strategist Dan Gerstein said. “The name is never gonna be hallowed the way it was in African American communities.”

The Clintons are still ruffling feathers. Bill Clinton lashed out at a critic who challenged him and his wife on health care earlier this week in West Virginia. And after Hillary Clinton lost the North Carolina primary to Obama Tuesday by double digits, she turned to race as a way of explaining her electoral appeal.

“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,” she told USA Today on Wednesday. Then she declared “a pattern is emerging here” and cited an Associated Press article “that found how Senator Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”

New York Rep. Charles Rangel, who is black and a Clinton supporter, told The New York Daily News, “I can’t believe Senator Clinton would say anything that dumb.”

The term “graceful exit” is one that’s thrown out a lot these days by political pundits.

“If she bows out gracefully … she can in fairly short order repair some of the damage that’s been done to her reputation and standing in the party,” Gerstein said.

Though he noted the ground Clinton and her husband have lost among black voters, he said she has galvanized support among women voters, a trend that could lead her into her political future.

“If she does this the right way, (she) would be in a very powerful position … to be a real advocate and a voice for women in Washington,” he said.

Pollster Scott Rasmussen, too, said Clinton is “looking for a graceful exit point.”

He said he’s done the math, and “it’s done.” He said the only way Clinton can win is if Obama makes such a “serious mistake” that he alienates his own supporters, which Rasmussen doubts will happen.

South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, the highest ranking black member of Congress, has already warned that the racially charged Democratic contest could turn away black voters, and he said Bill Clinton’s conduct on the trail had “incensed” the black community.

The former president’s most criticized moment was probably when he equated Obama’s victory in the January South Carolina primary to Jesse Jackson’s win in the state 20 years ago.

A FOX News poll in late April showed the former president was still viewed favorably by 52 percent of Americans, but not every survey is so rosy. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll in late March found that more Americans viewed him unfavorably than favorably, 45 to 42 percent.

Hillary Clinton loses about 90 percent of the black vote to Obama in just about every contest now, but she wasn’t always polling so low. A survey of black primary voters taken by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in October and November found that 51 percent viewed Clinton very favorably, compared with the 40 percent who viewed Obama the same way.

But once the dust settles on the primary race, Democrats may just be willing to forgive and forget.

Democratic pollster Doug Schoen believes Hillary Clinton still has a bright future in the party, and that her near-50 percent haul in the popular vote this primary cycle qualifies her for an influential role among Democrats. He’s advocated for a joint Obama-Clinton ticket, though other strategists aren’t so sure.

“She’ll be a voice in this party … in years to come,” he told FOX News on Saturday.

After all, national polls still show her almost pulling even with Obama.

If post-primary unity is an issue, Obama said Saturday in Oregon: “I know there is a lot of concern about division but let me assure you: this party will be united come November.”

Clinton last week told North Carolina Democrats that she will gladly support Obama and campaign for him if he is the nominee. Obama made the same pledge to her.

Even Rangel is holding nothing against Clinton.

“We were with Hillary Clinton before, we’re with Hillary Clinton now,” he said at her New York fundraiser Saturday, firing back at reporters who repeatedly asked him when Clinton is dropping out.

“When in the history of this country or the world did winners quit?” he asked.

FOX News’ Aaron Bruns, Shushannah Walshe and Judson Berger contributed to this report.

Barack Obama laughs with diners while eating lunch in Woodburn, Ore., Friday, as he closed in on Hillary Clinton's superdelegate lead. (AP Photo)

Email   |  

Barack Obama was on the cusp of surpassing Hillary Clinton in superdelegates Friday evening, and he acted like it didn’t even matter.

As he racked up nine such endorsements, the Illinois senator trained most of his attention on John McCain. His nonchalant attitude toward his gains against Clinton highlighted the way his campaign has been treating the competition lately in the Democratic race — almost as an afterthought.

“I’m gratified that we’ve got some superdelegates that are coming our way,” Obama said Friday in Woodburn, Ore., when asked by reporters about his superdelegate gains. “Our focus has always been on the pledged delegates and just getting the American people to vote for us … but if superdelegates also feel that we’re gonna be a strong candidate then I’m very pleased with that.”

The superdelegates — Democratic party leaders and insiders not bound to support either candidate — represent Clinton’s last hope for keeping the nomination out of Obama’s hands.

While Obama downplayed it, the developments Friday left the former first lady with 272.5 superdelegates, to 271 for Obama, poised to close what was once a gaping deficit between him and the New York senator in that category.

Obama already has 163 more pledged delegates than Clinton, and he expects to win a majority of those delegates on May 20. If he surpasses Clinton in superdelegates, she will likely be hard-pressed to keep the rest from moving into his corner.

“This trickle will soon become a steady stream,” said Democratic strategist Dan Gerstein. “At a certain point, it’s gonna become an inescapable wave.”

Behind the scenes, the Obama camp was working to get two more superdelegates. While the Associated Press tallies showed him slightly behind, other new organizations’ tallies showed he had already surpassed Clinton.

Gerstein said the superdelegate movement could give “cover” to other undecided delegates “who are nervous or on the fence or scared of crossing the Clintons,” in turn forcing the race to an end before June 3, when the final primaries are held.

Obama, increasingly confident that Clinton cannot overtake his lead, ignored her in his prepared remarks at a Portland-area workplace Friday and pointedly criticized McCain’s economic, health and Iraq policies, saying the probable GOP nominee would continue failed Bush administration priorities.

When asked about Clinton, Obama heaped more praise than criticism on the New York senator, continuing his efforts to avoid antagonizing her or her supporters. Speaking later with reporters, Obama hinted that he might help Clinton retire her campaign debt if he prevails.

“Historically, after a campaign is done and you want to unify the party … And so obviously I’d want to have a broad-ranging discussion with Senator Clinton about how I could make her feel good about the process and have her on the team moving forward,” he said when asked about the campaign debt.

Also campaigning in Portland, ahead of Oregon’s May 20 primary, Clinton took the opposite tack, knowing she can’t take on McCain unless she somehow derails Obama. At a round-table at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, she criticized Obama’s health care plan for promising universal coverage to children but not adults.

“This is a big difference in this campaign. It’s not a difference of politics so much as commitment. … How can anyone run to be the Democratic nominee and not have a universal health care plan?” she said.

McCain said Friday he is “ready” for the general election campaign to begin.

Superdelegate Haul

As of early evening Friday, Obama had earned nine more superdelegates, capitalizing on his strong primary performance three days earlier.

The latest superdelegates to endorse Obama were Hawaii Rep. Mazie Hirono, New Mexico’s Laurie Weahkee (according to a local paper) and Wilber Lee Jeffcoat, Democratic Party vice chair in South Carolina.

“The election is over, everybody knows that. Obama has won,” said Vernon Watkins, one of two Democratic National Committee members from California to endorse Obama Friday.

The other was Ed Espinoza, who in a statement said Obama’s “judgment and character” and ability to unify the country had driven his decision. Virginia DNC member Joe Johnson also endorsed.

Clinton also gained two superdelegates.

But she lost one when New Jersey Rep. Donald Payne — a black congressman who had been backing Clinton — decided to switch to Obama. Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon also endorsed.

Little more than five months ago, on the eve of the primary season, Clinton led 169-63 in superdelegates.

In an interview with National Public Radio, former candidate John Edwards said Clinton has made a compelling case for her candidacy, but “I think it’s very hard for her now to make a compelling case for the math. I mean, I think that’s the reality of what she’s faced with. She knows that. … It’s just very hard to see how the math works.”

Obama’s endorsements from superdelegates have picked up sharply since Tuesday, when he soundly defeated Clinton in North Carolina’s primary and held her to a narrow victory in Indiana. The momentum in his direction reflects a growing sense among Democratic leaders that his nomination is inevitable.

Obama also picked up the endorsement of the influential American Federation of Government Employees union on Friday.

“Our people, I think, recognize the enthusiasm and vitality behind Senator Obama’s campaign,” AFGE President John Gage said.

Gage, a previously uncommitted superdelegate, said he too was personally endorsing Obama.

Clinton spokesman Jay Carson said the campaign was keeping its chin up.

“We have strong support from a number of superdelegates, he has strong support from a number of superdelegates. And we believe as do our supporters that she would be the best candidate against (John) McCain and the best president on day one,” he said. “There’s still three weeks left in these contests. We think things can change. These numbers can shift at any point.”

Clinton pledged to fight to the end.

“Of course I’m going to keep going. I’m going to keep going because you keep going,” she told a Central Point, Ore., crowd Friday.

The Clinton campaign is still lobbying superdelegates, and according to aides has a plan in place to aggressively court them, via direct mail, television spots and public rallies.

Clinton also began airing an ad in Oregon in which former CIA operative Valerie Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, say the New York senator has the strongest plan to end the war in Iraq.

FOX News’ Shushannah Walshe, Judson Berger and Aaron Bruns and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Hillary Clinton speaks to supporters at a rally Thursday in Sioux Falls, S.D. (AP Photo)

Email   |  

Even as she scraps for a new debate with Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton faces an increasingly tough challenge as she stares down the final nomination contests in the race to the White House: keeping the campaign engine fed with money.

Both Clinton and Obama are in Oregon on Friday, and then they part ways as Clinton heads to one of her last strongholds on the campaign trail, Kentucky. There she’ll try to stanch the outward cash flow at a Louisville fundraiser.

In stark contrast to her April 22 win in Pennsylvania, campaign officials have not been touting massive amounts of fundraising in the days following her near-loss to Obama in Indiana, the same day she suffered a decisive defeat in North Carolina.

Obama, who harnessed the power of Internet fundraising early in the campaign, getting huge numbers of supporters to donate small amounts, has consistently outspent Clinton in recent weeks. Yet Obama’s budget is in the black, while Clinton lent herself another $6.4 million in April, bringing the total out-of-pocket amount to about $11 million for the New York senator.

Clinton’s campaign assures that it continues to have a strong bid, aided by the fact that the states Clinton is focusing on — West Virginia and Kentucky — are far less expensive to wage a battle in than previous states.

Spokesman Jay Carson said the campaign won’t get into precise figures of upcoming expenditures, “But we will have the resources to be competitive and we’ll spend what we need to spend.”

Carson also said that Clinton has “already made her personal financial commitment to the campaign very clear and she has not ruled out giving more if necessary.”

There’s a possibility that might not be necessary. The New York Times reports that Clinton still is taking in cash: $1 million at a Wednesday fundraiser, another $200,000 expected on Saturday. But it pales compared to the $10 million brought in after Pennsylvania.

The Politico reports that another historic Clinton family stronghold — Hollywood — still is showing support for her. Half the tickets to a fundraiser set for next Thursday are sold so far.

Despite the bleak financial picture, Clinton appears on track to continue the fight through at least June 3, the date of the last two primary contests in Montana and South Dakota.

She highlighted her continued fight in Oregon Thursday, saying she’d debate Obama “anytime, anywhere. He’s going to be in Portland tomorrow. I’m going to be in Portland.”

And addressing nagging questions over whether she would drop out, Clinton put a definitive foot down.

“Of course I’m going to keep going. I’m going to keep going because you keep going,” Clinton told a Central Point, Ore., crowd, which responded with applause.

But with three new superdelegate endorsements Friday, Obama found himself just six superdelegates away from eclipsing Clinton’s lead in that category. Though Obama leads strong in pledged delegates, Clinton has kept her lead in superdelegates throughout the campaign. She needs to keep and expand that lead significantly to prevent Obama from clinching the nomination.

To What Purpose?

Many are wondering what Clinton hopes to accomplish with such a slim shot at being the Democratic nominee.

“It’s like a 100-yard touchdown pass. It really is,” Temple University professor Marc Lamont Hill said of Clinton’s chances.

Her supporters, and even her detractors, believe the New York senator still wants to win, but they recognize that she could be setting herself up for a plan B — either a vice presidential nod, a future run for the White House or at least elevated status and influence on Capitol Hill.

“Whatever her ultimate fate is, she has a central stake in the future of the party,” said Democratic pollster Doug Schoen. “Whether she’ll be on the national ticket, whether she’ll have … an enhanced role in the Senate, or whether she’ll have an ongoing and central voice (in the Democratic Party) remains unclear.”

Schoen said Clinton has every right to see the race to its June 3 finish, since she’s still pulling close to 50 percent of the popular vote. But he said the possibility of the so-called “dream ticket,” where Clinton and Obama would run as a team in November, should be on party elders’ minds.

“I think it’s something that everybody should consider as being in the best interest of the Democratic Party,” he said.

Even Bill Clinton adviser-turned-ABC correspondent George Stephanopoulos is promoting the idea.

“This is what some people close to the Clintons are talking about: Is there a way to negotiate a settlement with Barack Obama to have Senator Clinton on the ticket?” he said Wednesday. “I mean, first of all, would Senator Obama go for it? Can he get over the bitterness of this campaign? Can he be convinced that it’s the strongest ticket? Third, of course, would Senator Clinton take it? I think if it was offered in the right way, yes.”

But several strategists see it as a faint possibility, at best.

“I think that’s the least likely option,” Democratic strategist Kirsten Powers said.

Hill, the Temple professor, said the VP plan is an enduring theory, especially since Clinton is trumpeting her ability to win swing states. She potentially is positioning herself as a No. 2 who can carry Obama over the top in the fall.

But Hill, too, doubts that’s a real possibility: “The problem is, the more she beats up on him, the less likely she’ll be on the ticket.”

He said Clinton really wants to raise more money so she can end her campaign in the black, and he subscribes to a growing conspiracy theory that Clinton is setting herself up for a 2012 run.

In that scenario, Clinton beats up on Obama so bad during the rest of the primary that he’s weakened and loses to John McCain in November. Then, four years later, McCain faces a Democratic backlash. Enter Clinton.

“She thinks Barack can’t win, and then she’ll be the inevitable (nominee) in 2012,” Hill said. “She can say, ‘I told ya’ll to pick me, see what happens when you don’t.’ … I think that’s a strong possibility.”

Former Bill Clinton adviser and columnist Dick Morris also buys that scenario.

“She’s staying in because it’s a hunting license,” he said. “Between now and the day she pulls out, she can say anything nasty about Barack Obama that she wants and that’s her way of making sure John McCain wins the election … and the nomination for the Democrats in ‘12 will be wide open and Hillary will have a very good shot at it.”

However, for that scheme to work, Clinton would have to continue beating on Obama — and notably, since the North Carolina and Indiana primaries Tuesday, she’s been soft on the Democratic front-runner.

On the Clinton side of the fence, defeat is not an option that’s being discussed publicly.

Clinton supporter Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif, who on Wednesday seemed to question Clinton’s strategy, said Thursday she had talked to Clinton and she’s confident the former first lady is in the race for one thing, “to win.”

“I’m sticking with her, absolutely,” she said. “She feels intense support from her people. She is persevering. She is very collected. She is very determined. She is really together. And she’s going to make the decision if the time comes. She doesn’t believe it’s the time.”

Even though she lost the North Carolina primary Tuesday by double digits and just eked out a victory in Indiana, Clinton’s continuing to argue that she’s the best candidate to go against McCain in November.

“The delegate math might be complicated but the electoral math is easy,” she said Thursday in Charleston, W. Va. “We need 270 electoral votes to win in November. It’s something we have to have. … My campaign is winning swing states.”

Clinton bounced from West Virginia to South Dakota on Thursday and was headed next to Oregon. The Clinton campaign claims it raised $1 million in the 24 hours after the Indiana and North Carolina polls closed.

But in the face of such frenzied campaigning, Obama’s already putting less emphasis on his primary race and lowering expectations to a point where Clinton’s victories, in his playbook, would mean nothing.

“She is hugely favored in West Virginia and Kentucky and she will win those states,” Obama bluntly told reporters Thursday. “But we will probably win our share, so we will probably split the remaining contests.”

The latest delegate counts show Obama with 1,846 and Clinton with 1,696. A candidate needs 2,025 to win the Democratic nomination.

Obama picked up the support of at least two new superdelegates after making the rounds on Capitol Hill on Thursday.

Rep. Brad Miller of North Carolina and Rep. Rick Larsen of Washington announced their support for his presidential campaign.

FOX News’ Judson Berger, Trish Turner, Aaron Bruns and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Col. George "Bud" Day speaks about his time in captivity with John McCain.

Email   |  

John McCain rarely speaks about his experiences as a POW in Vietnam, but one of his cell mates at the Hanoi Hilton on Thursday described some of the conditions and character traits that earned McCain the commendations he received for his war service.

Col. George “Bud” Day, 83, is the most decorated service man since Gen. Douglas MacArthur, with more than 70 medals. A living legend, Day was blown out of the sky two months to the day before the North Vietnamese shot down a propaganda prize, whose father and grandfather were renowned American admirals.

“They told me we were gonna get a roommate and it was gonna be the prince. The Vietnamese called him the prince so I asked my nurse what was his name? They said John McCain,” Day told FOX News.

Both he and McCain were taken captive in 1967, and held until their release in 1973.

Day said the first time he saw McCain, he believed the future senator was close to death and that the only reason for the chance encounter was part of a Vietnamese ploy to break the morale of U.S. servicemen already in captivity.

“I took one look at him, and my brain instantly said, ‘They dropped this guy off on me to claim that we let him die,’” Day said. “He was just emaciated. Very, very skinny, in this full body cast. Just filthy.”

The U.S. soldiers were held sometimes five to a cell, barely big enough for two.

“He had this gimpy knee where he’d busted his knee, this arm had been fractured in a couple places, he’d been bayoneted in the leg, this arm was out at the shoulder and, in fact, during that time it was out at the shoulder so long it wore a hole in this bone,” Day said.

During captivity, they were tortured mercilessly, Day said, describing one tactic that McCain has also recalled.

“They roped me under the arms, tied my hands behind my back, ran another rope to that, got me up on a chair, threw that rope up over a rafter and jerked the chair out from under me and your own weight just tears your body apart,” he said.

Day’s broken arm was re-broken during torture so he would never fly again. McCain played physical therapist.

“John said, ‘Well we’ll gather up some bamboo, and he was in a bandage on his leg at that time. So I got some strips of bamboo, smuggled them into the room, John put his foot in my arm pit and pulled on my wrist ’till we could get the bone forced back down … it wasn’t exactly perfect but it worked out he got it back to where it was functional,” Day said.

But nerve damage was extensive — his crushed hands were useless. Meanwhile, McCain was treated no better than the trash they were fed in the form of a soup.

“I mean you could smell him for 25 feet. Bunch of food and nasty stuff in his hair, and down his neck and inside his cast. The cast was not lined so every time he would move inside this cast, it was just eating a hole in his arm or his elbow or someplace, and he was just in — he was in pain,” Day recalled.

Yet McCain, now 71, made efforts to help Day recover from his own injuries, Day said.

Day said he had limited use of his arms, which was a result of a combination of torture and the initial plane crash that put him in the hands of his captors — an ordeal that earned Day the Congressional Medal of Honor.

“And when I finally did regain use of that, it was after months and months of dragging this hand and finger on the wall of the prison cell,” Day said, walking his fingers up the air like he did many years ago.

“John would help me. … John would pull my fingers out straight. They would just instantly recurl. And finally, one morning, I had just the slightest bit of movement in this hand — finger — and we both cried,” Day said.

McCain, whose military record was released to the Associated Press on Wednesday, received 17 commendations over his career from 1951-81. They included the Silver Star for his conduct in captivity. He also received the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross and a Bronze Star.

Day said by any humane standard, McCain would have been a good candidate for early release from the camp, but that wasn’t in his playbook.

“It also wasn’t in his playbook to die. In fact he quickly became a leader.”

Day said he asked McCain if he would be one of his preachers.

“He said sure. He had a great handle on the Episcopalian liturgy, he could just repeat it verbatim,” he said.

But repeating what he went through during his incarceration is something McCain almost never does as a presidential candidate. Day said he thinks he should.

“I’ve never seen any shortcomings or any shortfall out of him talking about that, but he just doesn’t trade on that. I think he feels that it’s wrong to trade on being a hero, but he is,” Day said.

Click here to watch Day’s interview with FOX News.

FOX News’ Carl Cameron contributed to this report.