Friday, May 30, 2008

Politics: Hillary Faces Building Pressure


Sen. Hillary Clinton campaigns before Tuesday’s primary in Huron, South Dakota.

Sen. Hillary Clinton has been under pressure to quit the race. However a new pressure has emerged from Democratic Party leaders who are sending messages to superdelegates urging them to make a choice once primary voting ends Tuesday.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Peolosi are intent on bringing the nomination battle to an end so the Democrats can focus their attention on the general election. “We’re going to urge folks to make a decision quickly — next week,” Reid said in a radio interview in Nevada. “We agree there won’t be a fight at the convention.” Pelosi has said that if the nomination was not settled by the end of June, she would step in to resolve it.
With only three primaries left — Puerto Rico on Sunday, South Dakota and Montana on Tuesday — Clinton trails Sen. Barack Obama by about 200 delegates. However, she is hoping to revive her candidacy on Saturday when the Rules and Bylaws Committee meets to resolve a dispute whether to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan. Clinton won both states in January, but because they violated party rules by holding their elections too early, the results were nullified. Clinton wants those votes to count and if that happens, she would pick up over 100 more delegates than Obama. Although that would not put her in the lead, it might allow her to plead with superdelegates that the race was close enough to give her the nomination.

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