Democrat Barack Obama mapped out the end-game for his epic White House tussle with Hillary Clinton Thursday, but the former first lady refused to yield to media catcalls declaring the race over.
Obama said he could declare victory over Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination on May 20, when primaries in Kentucky and Oregon may put him over the top in terms of elected delegates.
In that event, using a baseball analogy in an NBC interview, "we can make a pretty strong claim that we have got the most runs and it's the ninth inning and we have won."
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."
Obama's thumping win Tuesday in North Carolina, and his narrow defeat by Clinton in Indiana, has rewritten the narrative of this 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."
But Clinton vowed no surrender, telling supporters in West Virginia their voices deserved to be heard when the state holds its primary next Tuesday.
"This is a little bit like deja vu all over again," she said of the media critics, adding in a statement of intent for the general election: "I'm running to be president of all 50 states."
According to his campaign, Obama needs just 33 more pledged delegates to reach a majority of the Democratic nominating officials, 1,606.
But while reaching this majority would be potent symbolically, Obama would still need support from Democratic grandees called "superdelegates" to reach the ultimate winning line for the nomination -- 2,025.
At least 10 superdelegates escorted Obama out of one meeting Thursday near Capitol Hill and seemed to jostle each other to get in camera shot with him, despite not having publicly announced their preference.
In contrast, when Clinton had her own meeting with several superdelegates on Wednesday, she left alone.
Obama was also mobbed by Democratic House of Representatives members when he entered the chamber's floor -- a visible sign of where power appears to be drifting in a party desperate to recapture the White House.
Even as he vowed no retreat for the former first lady, Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said superdelegates would coalesce behind a candidate once the final primaries were held on June 3.
"I think it will be all over. I don't see it going to the (August) convention. We'll have a nominee in June," he said on NBC.
McAuliffe pinned Clinton's campaign's hopes on edging ahead in the national popular vote, if the voided results of primaries in Michigan and Florida are reinstated at a May 31 meeting of the Democratic National Committee.
Clinton wrote to Obama demanding he join her in supporting new contests in the two states, warning that the Democrats' treatment of their voters now "could be the difference between winning and losing in November."
But signs of a party shifting gear to back Obama were manifest.
At least six superdelegates have declared for him since Tuesday, including David Bonior, who was the national campaign manager for failed presidential hopeful John Edwards.
The Clinton campaign continues to argue that Obama has failed to close the deal with core Democratic constituencies, including women and working-class voters, and polls suggest many of them could end up voting for McCain.
There was renewed talk of Obama running with Clinton as his vice presidential nominee to bridge the divisions. He said that was premature, but did not rule out the idea as he praised his indefatigable foe.
"Senator Clinton has shown herself to be an extraordinary candidate. She is tireless, she is smart, she is capable," he told CNN.
"And so obviously she'd be on anybody's short list to be a potential vice presidential candidate."
