Voting today expected to deliver more delegate ammo for Obama
After Oregon and Kentucky ballots are tallied, Obama will likely claim he's within 100 delegates of the goal needed to clinch the Democratic nomination, putting more pressure on Clinton.
WASHINGTON -- After the votes are counted in today's primaries in Oregon and Kentucky, Barack Obama will likely to claim that he is within 100 delegates of the 2,026 needed to clinch the Democratic nomination for president, a landmark that could bring new pressure on Hillary Rodham Clinton to withdraw from the race.
But a group of Democratic women is urging Clinton to remain in the contest until the end, rebuffing the growing calls for her to gracefully end her candidacy soon.
"Not so fast," said a full-page ad in the New York Times and in Kentucky newspapers today, paid for by a new, San Francisco-based political action committee called WomenCount. "We want Hillary to stay in this race until every vote is cast, every vote is counted, and we know that our voices are heard."
Comparing the New York senator and former first lady to Susan B. Anthony, Eleanor Roosevelt and Barbara Jordan, the ad calls Clinton "this indefatigable woman" who "speaks with our voice [and] carries our hopes, dreams and aspirations with her."
Stacy Mason, the PAC's manager, said donations have been pouring in from women "frustrated by calls for her to get out of the race." With the Democratic National Committee holding hearings May 30-31 in Washington, Mason said the group is preparing a new ad campaign calling for the Michigan and Florida voters to be seated at the convention.
Former New York Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro, who in 1984 became the first female vice presidential candidate of a major party, was even more pointed. On NBC's "Today" show, Ferraro said she did not know if she will vote for Barack Obama. "Latent sexism has been around this country for a long time," she said, citing Obama's belittling of Clinton as "Annie Oakley" when, reaching out to rural voters, she said her father had taught her to shoot. "In this campaign it was patent."
And Gloria Allred, a Clinton delegate, told MSNBC that several women's groups in Los Angeles are planning a protest over news media coverage of Clinton's campaign. "I've never seen anything like it,' Allred said. "There's a double standard."
With primaries being held today in Kentucky and Oregon, former Sen. Tom Daschle, an early Obama supporter, called on Democrats to coalesce behind Obama in order to defeat Republican John McCain.
