Hillary Clinton's aides prepare to concede

By Toby Harnden in Washington Last Updated: 11:46PM BST 01/06/2008

Senior advisers to Senator Hillary Clinton have prepared the ground for her to abandon her 2008 presidential ambitions within days and not dispute the Democratic nomination all the way to the party convention in August.

Although she won by a wide margin over Barack Obama in yesterday’s Puerto Rico primary - with 85 per cent of the vote in, she was leading by 36 percentage points - the former First Lady made no mention in her victory speech of taking her fight beyond this week.

Instead, she made a final appeal to some 178 uncommitted super-delegates” - party officials whose convention votes are not tied to the primaries - that she would be the stronger general election candidate against John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

...Last week, Mrs Clinton said she expected undecided super-delegates to make up their mind quickly after Tuesday. Her rapidly fading hopes rested on her being able to persuade 90 per cent of them to overturn Mr Obama's delegate lead because of her contention that she would be the stronger candidate against Mr McCain.
Mr Obama indicated on Saturday night that he thought Mrs Clinton, in consultation with her husband Bill, would concede this week so that the party could unite against Mr McCain.

...more at the link