Clinton sweeps West Virginia

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Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton scored a resounding victory in West Virginia yesterday that supporters hailed as a turning point in her sinking hopes to win the Democratic presidential nomination and that detractors dismissed as meaningless.

The results signaled further trouble for Sen. Barack Obama, as the Clinton campaign crowed that he has been unable to win battleground states.

"This race isn't over yet," Mrs. Clinton told cheering fans in Charleston, W.Va. "The bottom line is this: The White House is won in the swing states, and I am winning the swing states."

The senator from New York who toppled from front-runner to underdog status in the past four months promised to fight on while asking for more campaign contributions. She also admonished "the pundits and the naysayers" who have declared Mr. Obama the nominee.

Mrs. Clinton called the result an "overwhelming vote of confidence."

"I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard," she said. "You will never quit, and I won't either."

Mrs. Clinton won 67 percent to Mr. Obama's 26 percent one of her widest victories. But even the margin and the state's role as a November battleground won't change the mathematical odds against Mrs. Clinton's winning enough delegates to become the party nominee.

Her advisers map out a path that includes a victory in Kentucky and a closer-than-expected finish in Oregon on Tuesday, followed by a big win in Puerto Rico that could help drive up her popular vote totals.

As it stands, Mr. Obama holds a lead in all measures, including in superdelegates — party leaders and elected officials — among whom she once dominated because of respect for her family within the Democratic establishment.

"There is no question that Senator Clinton is going to win by huge margins in the upcoming primaries in West Virginia today and Kentucky next week. She has poured resources into both states, and she, former President Clinton and Chelsea Clinton have all campaigned extraordinarily hard there," the Obama campaign wrote in a memo before West Virginia polls closed.