The Hill: McAuliffe: If Obama reaches 2,118, Clinton will concede
By Klaus Marre
Posted: 06/03/08
Terry McAuliffe, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (N.Y.) campaign chairman, said Tuesday that he believes that, once Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) reaches the number of delegates necessary to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, the former first lady “will congratulate him and call him the nominee.”
McAuliffe, who appeared on NBC’s Today Show, touted Clinton’s success in the popular vote when anchor Meredith Vieira interrupted to say: “But, then again, it is not about the votes, it is about that number, 2,118 delegates,” to which he replied “sure.”
Vieira followed up, asking “If Barack Obama reaches that number today or tomorrow, do you believe that Senator Clinton is prepared to concede?” McAuliffe responded: “Yes, I think if Senator Obama gets the number, I think Hillary Clinton will congratulate him and call him the nominee.”...
Obama is expected to reach the threshold of 2118 delegates as early as Tuesday with a combination of new superdelegates and pledged delegates won in the South Dakota and Montana primaries, but McAuliffe noted that “we haven’t gotten to that number yet.”
McAuliffe also said he does not think Clinton would take the fight over Michigan delegates to the Democratic credentials committee....
He also sounded a conciliatory note regarding the spirited campaign. “This has been a great race. History is being made this year — potentially the first African-American nominee of the party, the first woman. It has been a great race,” McAuliffe said. “We’ve brought 20 million more voters out than ever before. No matter what happens we are going to be a unified party going forward.”
http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/mcauliffe-if-obama-reaches-2118-clinton-will-concede-2008-06-03.html