In W. Va., Obama concedes to Clinton but looks to Nov.

Launches assault on McCain over veterans' care

Barack Obama made a brief campaign stop in West Virginia yesterday, which included a game of pool in a South Charleston bar and a speech in Charleston. (Jae C. Hong/Associated Press)

CHARLESTON, W. Va. - Barack Obama made a brief stop in West Virginia yesterday to preemptively concede today's primary to Hillary Clinton and to challenge Republican Senator John McCain over the issue of veterans' care, barely acknowledging his Democratic primary opponent while turning his focus to the November election.

"The true test of our patriotism is whether we will serve our returning heroes as well as they've served us," Obama said in Charleston, before heading off on a tour of battleground states. He noted that he supports a bill now before Congress that would sharply increase veterans' benefits. McCain opposes the legislation.

Obama's decision not to fully engage Clinton in the state threatened to minimize a primary she had long intended to use as a display of potential general-election strength among rural and working-class voters - specifically white ones, as she acknowledged last week. Her campaign has said these voters will be crucial to Democrats in November and they dominate the West Virginia electorate.

"This is one of the oldest states, one of the whitest states, and one of the least-educated states," said Robert DiClerico, a professor of political science at West Virginia University. "Those are all demographics with which she has done very well up to this point."

Clinton campaigned throughout the state yesterday, and polls showed her leading by 30 or more points. Yet the primary appeared to fall too late on the calendar for her to present a West Virginia victory as evidence of her electability to the superdelegates who will help decide the nomination. Yesterday, four more of them - including Hawaii Senator Daniel Akaka and Maine Congressman Tom Allen - announced they would support Obama.

"They're going to win the battle and lose the war," Tom Susman, a former Democratic legislator, said of the Clinton campaign in West Virginia.

Obama used his visit to the state to launch a bold assault on McCain, a decorated prisoner of war in Vietnam, over veterans' issues - by defining them as a measure of patriotism. It is general-election terrain strategists say will pose a particular challenge for Obama, who has been challenged by voters and the media after arguing last fall that US flag lapel pins "became a substitute for, I think, true patriotism."

Yesterday, Obama worked to define the idea on his own terms. Looking ahead to the general election, he wore a flag pin and urged Democrats to unite around an "unyielding commitment to the men and women who've served this nation and an unshakable fidelity to the ideals for which they've risked their lives."

Obama cast his concern for veterans as a personal mission inherited from a grandfather, Stanley Dunham, who served in World War II and received federal benefits for the rest of his life. Until recently, Obama spoke far less about his mother's family from Kansas than his father's from Kenya, a biographical emphasis that supporters reinforced.

"I know him as a profoundly devout Christian who loves America," West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller said as he introduced Obama to a crowd filled in part with veterans.

It was Republicans, Obama suggested, who had been unpatriotic by neglecting soldiers returning from Iraq - and McCain in particular for opposing a "21st Century GI Bill" that would expand benefits for veterans.

A McCain spokesman dismissed Obama's allegation as "absurd" and pointed to other votes by Obama against an emergency war-funding bill that would have aided veterans. McCain's campaign says he supports a less costly Republican version of a bill improving veterans' rights.

Obama's decision to give the speech here reflected a recognition that he had built what his campaign considers an insurmountable lead over Clinton in the nominating contest and would now seek a balance between following the Democratic primary calendar and strategic imperatives for the general election, according to an aide.

"John McCain has been unchallenged for too long," said Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki. "Our schedule reflects we are still fighting for votes in the remaining contests but we are looking ahead to places where we are going to be competitive in the fall."

Clinton has tried to cast today's primary as one of the few remaining chances for party leaders to recognize that she would be a stronger nominee against McCain. "I keep telling people, no Democrat has won the White House since 1916 without winning West Virginia," she said at a morning stop yesterday at a Charleston biscuit shop.

"West Virginia used to be a leading Democratic indicator, but the last few years we've gone more Republican," said Susman, a consultant who is not supporting a candidate. "People in West Virginia like their guns, like their religion, love their country - and they like the Clintons. They relate to Bill, they relate to Hillary."

Yet, even as she stood on the precipice of a potential landslide, Clinton's tour projected a valedictory quality. While Governor Joe Manchin, her top West Virginia supporter, prepared to join Clinton for a closing event last night that her campaign billed an "Old-Fashioned Democratic Rally," his wife, Gayle, attended Obama's speech.

As Clinton traveled though West Virginia looking for votes, she wrote to supporters nationwide by e-mail with a link to a video that sounded like a farewell. "We'll stay in touch," Clinton said. "Thanks again for everything."

The signs of distraction by Clinton and Obama could combine to diminish enthusiasm for today's primary, in which 28 delegates are available. "If in fact the perception is that it's all over, a considerable number of her supporters may decide not to vote. That could lessen whatever impact there's going to be," DiClerico said.

Obama has barely campaigned in West Virginia and began yesterday's speech by all but conceding the state, saying that he expected "many more here in West Virginia will probably support Senator Clinton" than him. Those words were greeted with boos, but they turned to cheers when Obama suggested in the next sentence that the race would soon be over.

After his remarks, Obama quickly departed West Virginia for Kentucky, which will vote next week. Obama's primary-day schedule included a visit to rural southeastern Missouri, a state that narrowly supported him in its February primary and is expected to be contested in the fall. Tomorrow he will be in Michigan's Macomb County, which birthed the socially conservative, working-class voters known as Reagan Democrats. Next week, Obama will visit Florida.