By Arun Kumar, IANS
Washington : After three dramatic comeback victories in the US presidential race, Hillary Clinton Wednesday hinted at the possibility of a joint run for the White House with Democratic front-runner rival Barack Obama.
“That may be where this is headed, but of course we have to decide who is on the top of ticket. I think the people of Ohio very clearly said that it should be me,” Clinton said on CBS’s “The Early Show” when asked if she and Obama should be on the same ticket.
On a second Super Tuesday night, Clinton vying to be America’s first woman president won crucial primaries in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island, snapping Obama’s winning run in a dozen states, but the contest still failed to clarify the Democratic race.
Making a bid to be America’s first black chief executive, Obama played down his losses, stressing that he still holds the lead in terms of the number of delegates, and insisted he had the best credentials to head against the now certain Republican nominee, John McCain.
Obama, who had hoped to knock Clinton out Tuesday, said he would prevail against a tenacious candidate who “just keeps on ticking”.
“We still have an insurmountable lead,” said Obama. “We’re very confident about where we’re going to be and that we can win the nomination and the general election.”
Clinton acknowledged the race was close and said it would come down to her credentials on national security and the economy.
But with neither candidate willing to call it quits, the Democratic battle was set to go on long into the summer with the next big showdown on April 22 in Pennsylvania with 158 delegates.
Before that they have two more warm-up matches with Wyoming offering 12 delegates in caucuses Saturday and Mississippi another 33 next week.
Clinton said Wednesday that so-called “superdelegates” – 796 party officials and top elected officials who also help decide the nomination – should exercise “independent judgment” in selecting the party’s nominee.
“New questions are being raised, new challenges are being put to my opponent,” she said. “Superdelegates are supposed to take all that information on board and they are supposed to be exercising the judgment that people would have exercised if this information and challenges had been available several months ago.”
Clinton won about 54 percent of the Ohio vote in nearly complete returns. She was winning just over half in the Texas primary. She still faced a daunting task trying to overtake Obama in the remaining contests.
After Tuesday’s four-state contests with 370 delegates at stake, Obama had a total of 1,477 delegates including superdelegates, according to the latest count. Clinton had 1,391 delegates. Both were thus still far away from the magic winning number of 2,025 for the Democratic nomination.
Meanwhile, Vietnam War veteran McCain who sealed the Republican nomination race Tuesday against odds that seemed steep only a few months ago and all but impossible last summer, was headed for the White House to pick up President George W. Bush’ endorsement.
The president planned a five-star ceremony, with a formal welcome at the White House’s North Portico, lunch in his private dining room and a formal endorsement in the Rose Garden for his rival in the 2000 presidential primaries.
Since then the two have forged an uneasy relationship during Bush’s administration and have clashed on issues such as campaign finance, tax cuts, global warming and defining torture.
“I am very pleased to note that tonight, my friends, we have won enough delegates to claim with confidence, humility and a sense of great responsibility that I will be the Republican nominee for president of the US,” McCain, 71, told supporters in Dallas.
“The contest begins tonight,” the former Navy fighter pilot and prisoner of war in Vietnam said, looking ahead to a match-up with either Obama or Clinton in the Nov 4 presidential poll.
Facing a couple of well-heeled candidates in a crowded field, he opened his comeback in New Hampshire’s leadoff primary, rolled over former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani in Florida and finished off former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney after Super Tuesday Feb 5.
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee hung in until Tuesday night, gamely keeping up the fight weeks after failing to see the writing on the wall.
“It’s time for us to hit the reset button,” he said finally. “We started this effort with very little recognition and virtually no resources. We ended with slightly more recognition and very few resources.”