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WASHINGTON: Surging presidential hopeful Barack Obama
did not rule out the idea of running with Hillary Clinton as his
vice presidential nominee to unite the Democratic Party.
“Senator Clinton has shown
herself to be an extraordinary candidate. She is tireless, she is
smart, she is capable,” Obama told CNN.
“And so obviously she’d be on
anybody’s short list to be a potential vice presidential
candidate.”
But steering clear of calls for
Clinton to bow out, and mindful of the wounds exposed by the
Democratic primary season, the Illinois senator said it would be
crucial to win “in a way that brings the party together.”
But despite praising his
indefatigable foe, Obama said it was too premature to talk about the
matter, and he could declare victory over Clinton for the Democratic
presidential nomination on May 20, when primaries in Kentucky and
Oregon may put him in the top in terms of elected delegates.
In that event, “we can make a
pretty strong claim that we have got the most runs and it’s the
ninth inning and we have won,” Obama said, using a baseball
analogy, in an NBC interview Thursday.
Obama’s thumping win Tuesday in
North Carolina and his narrow defeat by Clinton in Indiana have
rewritten the narrative of the gripping Democratic contest.
Editorialists crowned Obama as
the Democrats’ champion-elect for the November election against
Republican John McCain.
“And the winner is...” said
Time magazine on its cover, over a photograph of Obama with a
million-watt smile. The Economist said: “Mrs Clinton’s campaign
is surely close to its end.”
“I don’t want to be jinxed.
We’ve still got work to do,” Obama said of the Time cover, in a
CNN interview.
The New York Times, which had
endorsed Clinton, on Friday defended her right to stay in the race,
but said she would be making a terrible mistake “if she continues
to press her candidacy through negative campaigning with disturbing
racial undertones.”
Clinton vowed no surrender,
telling supporters in West Virginia that their voices deserve to be
heard when the state holds its primary next Tuesday.
-- AFP
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