Clinton pushes ahead with White House bid

By LIZ SIDOTI and BETH FOUHY Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) - A tenacious Hillary Rodham Clinton pushed ahead with her White House bid Wednesday, revealing that she lent her cash-strapped campaign $6.4 million while vowing to seek the nomination at the ballot box and through Democratic Party channels.

Clinton met with fresh pressure to bow out of the race. Former Sen. George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee who had backed her candidacy, urged her to get out on Wednesday and said he had decided to endorse Barack Obama.

But Clinton's campaign seemed determined to buy time to make her case to party elders and figure out how to overtake Obama. Indeed, few Democrats expect her to drop out anytime soon.

"I'm staying in this race until there's a nominee and obviously I am going to work as hard as I can to become that nominee," Clinton said at a Shepherdstown, W.Va., news conference.

The former first lady also planned a meeting with undecided superdelegates, the party leaders and elected officials that could ultimately decide the nomination.

On Thursday, she was to return to West Virginia, then fly to South Dakota and Oregon. West Virginia holds its primary Tuesday; Oregon's is May 20 and South Dakota is June 3.

The vigorous pace belied the daunting circumstances she faced. With six contests left Obama leads in the popular vote and was 178.5 delegates shy of the 2,025 that the national Democratic party says he needs to secure the Democratic nomination.

But Clinton on Wednesday declared that the delegate threshold should be 2,209 or 2,210 delegates, a number that would include delegates from Michigan and Florida. Clinton won the votes in those states, but the Democratic Party voided the results because the primaries were held ahead of the schedule set by party rules.

"I think that there are a number of ways to resolve this but it does need to be resolved," she said at her news conference. "All I've said is you've got to figure out how to seat the delegates from Florida and Michigan that is a reflection of the votes that they cast because those were legitimate elections and they deserve to have those votes counted."

Campaign aides said they hoped news of her new loan would spark a new round of giving similar to a previous surge in February. But the disclosure also underscored a financial disadvantage that could ultimately seal her fate.

The loan more than doubled Clinton's personal investment in her bid for the Democratic nomination. She gave her campaign $5 million in late January.

Aides said Clinton gave her campaign another $5 million on April 11, more than a week before the Pennsylvania primary. She then again dipped into her personal wealth for $1 million last week and $425,000 on Monday, one day before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries.

"She did this in order to remain competitive with Senator Obama on television," Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson said. "We had a very good fundraising month last month, but Senator Obama had a better fundraising month."

He said she would be willing to dip into her money again "to ensure that our message is getting out."

How well Clinton can stand up to Obama financially could be a key.

"I think the money thing is the key in the next 48 hours," said Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic strategist and president of NDN, a Democratic think tank. "The single biggest factor in what happens next is the financial situation. If she has enough money to continue, she will go on."

Said Democratic strategist Steve Murphy: "Hillary has to run a campaign through June 3 in my view. Then I think she has to get out before the end of June. Which comes first, NBA champion or Democratic nominee?"

Obama has broken records in fundraising and spending. His campaign would not divulge details of his current financial standing on Wednesday.

Clinton's campaign reported raising $10 million online after her Pennsylvania victory on April 22. Evidently, the money was not enough and her fundraising was unable to keep up with her expenses heading into Tuesday's contests.

Moreover, Obama has routinely outspent her in primary after primary and has shown little difficulty tapping his vast network of donors. He spent more than $7 million on advertising ahead of Tuesday's primaries in North Carolina and Indiana to her nearly $4 million.

According to the latest campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, Obama began the month of April with $42 million in the bank for the primary to Clinton's $9.3 million.

But Clinton had debts of $10.3 million at the start of the month, much of it money owed to her main polling, phone banking and advertising consultants.

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Associated Press Writer Jim Kuhnhenn in Washington contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS UPDATES with new delegate number in graf 7. SUBS graf 6 to correct date of South Dakota contests)