Obama ridicules notion of running as Clinton's vice-presidential candidate

The Associated Press ,  Washington   |  Tue, 03/11/2008 8:44 AM  |  World

Barack Obama, locked in a tight and contentious race with Hillary Rodham Clinton, was favored to win Tuesday's primary in Mississippi as the two Democrats battled for every last delegate in their historic contest for the party's presidential nomination.

Obama defeated Clinton in a minor contest in Wyoming on Saturday and retains the all-important overall delegate lead. But he was set back by losses to Clinton in three out of four primaries last week.

His prospects look good in Mississippi, where blacks make up the majority of Democratic voters. Obama, who is seeking to become the first black U.S. president, has been carried to victory by their votes in other southern states.

The Illinois senator campaigned in Mississippi on Monday, and mocked Clinton's suggestion that he could be her running mate.

Saying he wanted to be "absolutely clear," he told supporters: "I don't want anybody here thinking that somehow, 'Well, you know, maybe I can get both.' Don't think that way. You have to make a choice in this election."

"I am not running for vice president," Obama added. "I am running for president of the United States of America."

Obama aides said Clinton's recent hints that she might welcome him as her vice presidential candidate appeared intended to diminish him and to attract undecided voters in the remaining primary states by suggesting they can have a "dream ticket."

Obama had never suggested he might accept a second spot on the ticket. But until Monday he had not ridiculed the notion so directly.

"I don't know how somebody who is in second place is offering the vice presidency to someone who is in first place," Obama said, drawing cheers and a standing ovation from about 1,700 people in Columbus, Mississippi.

Clinton and her husband, the former president, had suggested recently that a Clinton-Obama ticket would be popular and formidable against Republican Sen. John McCain in November.

"A lot of Democrats like us both and have been very hopeful that they wouldn't have to make a choice but obviously Democrats have to make a choice and I'm looking forward to getting the nomination," Clinton said Monday in Scranton, Pennsylvania. "And it's preliminary to talk about whoever might be on whose ticket."

After a weekend break from public campaign events, the Democratic contenders traveled in different directions Monday. Obama had rallies in Mississippi, where 33 delegates are at stake, while Clinton campaigned in Pennsylvania, the next major battleground. The northeastern state's April 22 primary offers the biggest prize left in the nomination race: 158 delegates.

Clinton scored campaign-saving victories in Ohio and Texas last Tuesday after 11 straight losses to Obama. Her campaign views Pennsylvania as friendly terrain, similar to neighboring Ohio. Both are industrial states with large numbers of white working-class voters and Democratic governors who are strong supporters of Clinton, who is aiming to become the country's first woman president.

In the overall race for the nomination, Obama leads with 1,578 delegates to Clinton's 1,468, according to the latest tally by The Associated Press. It will take 2,025 delegates to win the Democratic nomination at the party's convention in late August.

It is unlikely that either candidate would win enough delegates in the remaining contests to secure the nomination outright. Instead, they would need the help of the almost 800 so-called superdelegates - party officials and elected leaders who are not bound by state contest results - to secure the nomination.

On the Republican side, McCain, a veteran Arizona senator and former Vietnam prisoner of war who wrapped up his party's nomination last week, was focusing on a fundraising tour this week.

McCain has far less money than both of his potential Democratic opponents. Clinton has more than doubled McCain's donations; Obama has nearly tripled the Arizona senator's total.

Obama raised $55 million (euro35.85 million) in February alone, while Clinton collected $35 million (euro22.82 million). McCain has not yet released his February totals.

On Monday, McCain declared he has been cancer-free since a bout with skin cancer 7 1/2 years ago, although the pending Republican presidential nominee underwent a full medical examination -- including a cancer screening -- earlier in the day.

The 71-year-old McCain pledged to release the test results before the end of April, the same timeframe for releasing his income tax returns.

McCain cast the doctor's visit as a routine part of his medical regimen, but the senator has faced questions about whether he is beyond the risk of a recurrence of cancer.

"Everything's fine," McCain said at a news conference. "Like most Americans, I go see my doctor fairly frequently."

Later, during a flight to St. Louis, McCain was asked if he was cancer-free. "Oh yeah," he responded.

Next week, McCain heads overseas for a visit to Europe and the Middle East that will also include a stop in Iraq. McCain divulged the trip despite security concerns from the Pentagon, telling reporters, "I don't mind telling you, the Pentagon goes ballistic. They go ballistic."

Upon his return, he plans a major foreign policy address, followed by a tour taking him to important sites in his personal biography.

Among the expected stops: McCain Field in Mississippi, a Navy facility named for his grandfather, a former admiral; Jacksonville, Florida, where McCain returned from his time as a Vietnam prisoner of war and commanded the largest flight squadron in the Navy; and Alexandria, Virginia, and Annapolis, Maryland, where he went to high school and then the Naval Academy. (****)

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