Signs that Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign is nearing an end began to multiply today.
Campaigning in South Dakota, her husband said this could be his final time on the presidential campaign stage.
“I want to say also that this may be the last day I’m ever involved in a campaign of this kind. I thought I was out of politics ’til Hillary decided to run. But it has been one of the greatest honors of my life to go around and campaign for her for president,” Bill Clinton said as he began his speech, according to ABCNews.com
Hillary Clinton, also in South Dakota before its primary tomorrow, said, “I’m just very grateful we kept this campaign going until South Dakota would have the last word,” Clinton said at a restaurant visit. “What South Dakota decides tomorrow will have a big influence in what people think going forward.”
Meanwhile, a confident-sounding Sen. Barack Obama talked today about a discussion he had Sunday with Clinton.
“I told her that once the dust settled I’m looking forward to meeting with her at a time and place of her choosing,” he said.
Clinton planned an evening rally in Sioux Falls with Bill and daughter Chelsea before flying east. South Dakota and Montana hold the final two primaries Tuesday, with 31 delegates at stake.
Clinton’s advisers privately predicted she would lose both contests, and she planned to hold her primary night rally Tuesday in New York City, a rare departure from the campaign trail. She planned to meet with advisers at her home in Chappaqua, N.Y., on Tuesday.
The New York senator had no other scheduled public events Tuesday.
An adviser speaking on condition of anonymity said it was highly unlikely she would announce an end to her campaign Tuesday night, adding that she would consider all options until Obama secured the 2,118 delegates needed to clinch the nomination.
There were other signs Monday that Clinton was moving to wrap up her historic race for the presidency. Staffers who have worked for her on he ground in the final primaries have been invited to attend Clinton’s speech in New York Tuesday at Baruch College.
But adviser Harold Ickes said the staffers weren’t being fired or bid farewell.
“There are no more primaries so there is nowhere to send them,” Ickes said, insisting the campaign was now focused on the remaining superdelegates and not on individual states.
Even with her chances of wresting the nomination from Obama all but extinguished, Clinton’s supporters and advisers were calling uncommitted superdelegates to persuade them to back her candidacy. Indeed, two new superdelegates – one from Louisiana and one from New York – announced Monday they would support Clinton.
Mark Aronchick, a national fundraiser for Clinton based in Philadelphia, said he was calling “any superdelegate I know” including those who have publicly endorsed Obama in hopes of winning their support. While he said he expected Clinton to stay in the race until Obama secured enough delegates for the nomination, he acknowledged that she faced long odds.
“We’re not withdrawing. We’re not conceding. We’re going on to the end,” Aronchick said, adding that whatever the outcome, Democrats would have to move quickly to restore party unity “from top to bottom.”
Clinton was scheduled to address the national conference of AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, in Washington Wednesday, as was Obama.
With Post wire services