Clinton win in W Virginia: too little, too lateDan Balz

Clinton advisers hoped the size of Clinton’s victory and signs of dissatisfaction with Obama among West Virginia voters would reopen a conversation about who is the stronger Democrat to take on Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, in the general election. They also hoped the results would tamp down talk that Clinton should consider dropping out of the nomination contest before the primaries end on June 3 to speed the process of uniting Democrats.

Clinton was winning with a margin of better than 2 to 1 in the popular vote in West Virginia. With 28 pledged delegates at stake, that margin would produce a net gain for Clinton of an estimated 12 delegates. That would only partially cut into the gains Obama has made in superdelegates since he easily won North Carolina and narrowly lost Indiana a week ago. Former Democratic Party general chairman Roy Romer, who was handpicked for that job by former president Bill Clinton, announced his support for Obama yesterday.

Hillary Clinton claimed victory shortly after the polls closed last night.

Saying the nomination battle “isn’t over yet,” she told cheering supporters in Charleston that, as a result of her victory, “I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard.” Clinton argued that, by winning in states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, and now West Virginia, she has demonstrated strength where it counts. “The White House is won in the swing states, and I am winning the swing states.”

Obama did not appear publicly after the polls closed, but he pointedly looked past his defeat by holding a campaign event in the general-election battleground state of Missouri, saying it was a place “where we will compete to win when I am the Democratic nominee for president.”