Clinton wins Puerto Rico primary

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Hillary Rodham Clinton won a lopsided, but largely symbolic victory Sunday in Puerto Rico’s presidential primary, the final act in a weekend of tumult that pushed Barack Obama tantalizingly close to the Democratic presidential nomination.\nThe former first lady was winning roughly two-thirds of the votes.\nIn defeat, Obama was on track to gain at least 14 delegates, bringing him within 50 of the 2,118 needed for the nomination.\nAides predicted he could clinch the nomination as early as this week, when Montana and South Dakota close out the primary season, and he said he was confident the party would unite for the fall campaign.\n“First of all, Senator Clinton is an outstanding public servant, she has worked tirelessly during this campaign ... and she is going to be a great asset when we go into November,” he told an audience in Mitchell, S.D. “Whatever differences Senator Clinton and I may have, those differences pale in comparison to the other side.”\nObama’s confidence in the outcome of the historic battle for the nomination reflected the outcome of Saturday’s meeting of the Democratic Party’s rules and bylaws committee. Before an audience that jeered and cheered by turns, the panel voted to seat disputed delegations from Michigan and Florida, but give each delegate only one-half vote rather than the full vote sought by the Clinton campaign.\nWhile the decision narrowed the gap between Clinton and Obama, it also erased the former first lady’s last, best chance to change the course of the campaign.\nWith 57 percent of the precincts reporting, the Puerto Rico vote count showed Clinton with 131,304 votes, or 68 percent, to Obama’s 61,614 votes, or 32 percent.\nA telephone poll of likely Puerto Rican voters taken in the days leading up to the primary showed an electorate sympathetic to Clinton — heavily Hispanic, as well as lower income and more than 50 percent female. About one-half also described themselves as conservative.\nNearly three-quarters of all those interviewed said they had a favorable view of Clinton, compared to 53 percent for Obama. One-third said they didn’t know enough about Obama to form an impression.\nThe survey was conducted Tuesday through Saturday for The Associated Press and the television networks by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. It included 1,587 likely voters with a candidate preference; sampling error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.\nObama had a total of 2,068 delegates in The Associated Press count, including at least 14 from Puerto Rico. He also gained the support of two superdelegates during the day.\nClinton has 1,891.5, including at least 28 from Puerto Rico, with another 13 yet to be allocated from the day’s primary.\nThere are 31 delegates combined at stake in Montana and South Dakota on Tuesday, and Obama’s high command sounded confident that enough superdelegates were poised to quickly climb on and deliver him the nomination.\nThere have been numerous statements by party leaders in recent days indicating they favor a quick end to the presidential race so the party can begin unifying for the fall race against John McCain, the Arizona senator who wrapped up the Republican nomination months ago.\nAnd while Clinton’s campaign said it reserved the right to challenge the decision concerning Michigan’s delegates, Speaker Nancy Pelosi rushed out a statement Saturday night that congratulated the committee “for its good work.”\nThe California Democrat has been neutral in the race, but also has been calling uncommitted lawmakers in recent days, urging them to issue their own endorsements soon after Tuesday.\nRobert Gibbs, a senior aide, did not rule out the possibility that Obama will seat the Michigan and Florida delegations at full strength if he is the nominee.\n“I think any nominee may make some decisions at some point regarding those delegations,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”\nClinton’s campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, appearing on the same program, declined to say what Clinton would do. “We’ll see where we are when we finish up Tuesday,” he said. “Then superdelegates will begin to move.”\nHe, as well as Clinton’s communications director, Howard Wolfson, said the former first lady had won more votes that Obama in the course of the primary campaign — an argument she placed in a new television advertisement in South Dakota and Montana, and one she makes to undecided superdelegates.\nGibbs disputed that — and Clinton’s claim includes estimates for caucuses in Iowa, Nevada, Maine and Washington state, where no official candidate popular vote is available. It also includes the results from Florida, where no campaigning occurred, as well as Michigan, where Obama did not receive any votes because his name was not on the ballot.\nClinton’s campaign objected to the rules committee decision on Michigan’s delegates, saying it had arbitrarily taken four delegates away from the former first lady and awarded them to Obama. As a result, officials said she may seek a decision on the issue by the convention credentials committee, which meets shortly before the convention opens in Denver.\nHarold Ickes, a top adviser to Clinton, said on NBC’s “Meet The Press” no decision had yet been made.\n“I have not had a chance to talk with Senator Clinton at any length about it, and obviously this will be a big decision. But her rights are reserved,” he said.\nBut one of her strongest supporters, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, sounded uninterested in a further challenge.\n“I don’t think we’re going to fight this at the convention, because even were we to win it, unless it’s going to change enough delegates for Senator Clinton to win the nomination, then it would be a fight that would have no purpose,” Rendell said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”