Superdelegates desert her, but Clinton refuses to throw in towel

Hillary Clinton gave no sign of abandoning her do-or-die campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination in the US presidential race yesterday. She made a pump-up-the-troops appearance in West Virginia, which holds its primary vote next week, even as aides admitted she had been forced to loan herself yet more campaign money in recent weeks.

By any measure, Mrs Clinton is in a worse bind than ever. Although she squeaked a narrow win in Indiana's primary election on Tuesday, she was demolished in North Carolina – where she won just 42 per cent of the votes compared to the whopping 56 per cent of her rival Barack Obama.

Mr Obama also reinforced his lead in the count of delegates – the party stalwarts who have pledged to vote for him when the Democratic National Convention meets in August to decide its preferred presidential candidate.

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Mrs Clinton's money woes are hardly helping. Aides revealed that she loaned her campaign an additional $6.4m over the past month, in addition to the $5m she drew from her own fortune in February. She wrote herself cheques for $425,000 on Monday and $1m last week.

Her camp now faces the danger that uncommitted superdelegates – the party grandees who are not pledged to vote for either candidate at the convention – will start migrating in accelerating numbers to Mr Obama. Yesterday saw a symbolic defection to the other side of George McGovern, a former presidential nominee, who publicly urged Mrs Clinton to drop out of the race for the good of the party.

It was telling that her schedule included a meeting with key campaign donors in Washington, as well as a session with Democrat superdelegates in Congress. The second meeting appeared to be in jeopardy, however, with some superdelegates reluctant to appear with her.

Mrs Clinton's cash-crunch had shown some sign of easing after the Pennsylvania primary two weeks ago, when she received a sudden infusion of $10m from supporters. But it is clear that that was not nearly enough to keep up with the staggering cost of running her campaign. Mr Obama, by contrast, seems to have almost unlimited supplies of money, mostly coming from small-purse backers.

Mrs Clinton spent huge sums in North Carolina, where some aides had dared to predict victory and her husband, Bill, devoted days and dollars to touring the state. That money now seems to have been largely wasted. The result also showed that her support among North Carolina's black voters was smaller than ever.

Aides said her decision to bring more of her own money into play should be taken not as a sign of financial shipwreck but of her continuing faith in her ability eventually to prevail. "She is invested in this race, she is committed to this race, she will do what she can to ensure we have the resources that we need going forward," said her communications director, Howard Wolfson.

Mrs Clinton faces one immovable reality, however. Even were she to win all six remaining primaries by margins much larger than she has managed so far, and at the same time persuade more than half of the remaining, uncommitted superdelegates to come to her side, she still would not overtake Mr Obama in the overall delegate count. If she stays in the race, it is because she is counting on some kind of miracle.

Although she did win in Indiana, she only just did so – with 51 per cent of the vote to Mr Obama's 49 per cent. Aides were counting on a much stronger performance to enable her to make a convincing case to party elders that she is the more electable candidate.

"It is bad news for Hillary Clinton but, frankly, I think the game changed a long time ago," noted Garry South, an unaligned Democratic strategist. "Barack Obama has outraised her substantially, he has won more states, more pledged delegates and is ahead in the popular vote. It is obvious he has outperformed her." Mr McGovern, the party's presidential nominee in 1978, had been a loyal Hillary supporter. He said yesterday of both Clintons: "I will hold them in affection and admiration all of my days". But he added that, "by any practical test", the race was over.

"Hillary will make the decision as to if and when she ends her campaign," said Mr McGovern. "But I hope she reaches that decision soon so we can concentrate on a unified party capable of winning the White House next November."

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