Determined Clinton presses on

Candidate urges supporters to ignore calls for her to quit

By BETH FOUHY - The Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Her voice raspy, her tone determined, Hillary Rodham Clinton urged her supporters Thursday to ignore the political pundits who have declared that she’s done for.

The former first lady raced into a campaign day that would take her from West Virginia to the West Coast, declaring she would move forward with her presidential effort and insisting anew that she, not rival Barack Obama, would be the stronger Democratic candidate to face Republican John McCain in November.

At a rally under the dome of the West Virginia Capitol, Clinton dismissed calls for her to drop out as “deja vu all over again.” She said she had faced similar pressure before going on to win in New Hampshire, Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania.

“A lot of you have stuck with me; you’ve been through all the ups and downs in this campaign, the biggest victories and toughest moments,” Clinton told her supporters. “I think it is because you understand that you’ve got to have a president who gets up every day and fights for you, who never gives up on you.”

One still-loyal supporter was Evelyn Smith, 78, among hundreds who jammed into the Capitol and waited nearly two hours to hear Clinton speak.

“It’s going to take a miracle for her to get the nomination, which I could sit down and cry about because I think she really deserves to be president and the first lady president,” Smith said.

In contrast to her confrontational comments in speeches leading up to recent primaries, Clinton’s only mention of Obama was to say next Tuesday’s election would be a test for both her and the Illinois senator.

She did highlight her strengths with various voting blocs through the primaries, an implicit comparison with her Democratic foe.

“We need to bring back hardworking people to the Democratic Party,” the New York senator said. “I’m winning Catholic voters and Hispanic voters, blue-collar workers and seniors. People Sen. McCain will need in the general election.”

She added, “Some call you swing voters. I call you Americans.”

Exit polls in Indiana and North Carolina on Tuesday showed Clinton continuing to dominate Obama in attracting support from whites, particularly white men, and voters who lack college degrees. An average of 57 percent of whites have backed the New York senator in Democratic primaries since Super Tuesday on Feb. 5.

In an interview with USA Today published Thursday, Clinton said, “I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on.” She cited an Associated Press article “that found how Senator Obama’s support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”

West Virginia’s demographic makeup of white, older voters favors Clinton.

She renewed her call for a summertime holiday for the federal gasoline tax, with oil companies making up the difference, a proposal that many economists — and Obama — have dismissed as meaningless pandering.

Later she had appearances in South Dakota and Oregon, which have upcoming primaries.

Clinton has fallen further behind Obama in delegates won in primaries and caucuses. Her hopes for the Democratic nomination rest on strong showings in the remaining contests to convince more than 200 party elders and other “superdelegates” to support her.