Clinton pushes ahead with White House bid

Clinton met with fresh pressure to bow out of the race. Former Sen. George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee who had backed her candidacy, urged her to get out on Wednesday and said he had decided to endorse Barack Obama.

But Clinton's campaign seemed determined to buy time to make her case to party elders and figure out how to overtake Obama. Indeed, few Democrats expect her to drop out anytime soon.

"I'm staying in this race until there's a nominee and obviously I am going to work as hard as I can to become that nominee," Clinton said at a Shepherdstown, W.Va., news conference.

The former first lady also planned a meeting with undecided superdelegates, the party leaders and elected officials that could ultimately decide the nomination.

On Thursday, she was to return to West Virginia, then fly to South Dakota and Oregon. West Virginia holds its primary Tuesday, with the two other contests set for May 20.

The vigorous pace belied the daunting circumstances she faced. With six contests left Obama leads in the popular vote and was 184.5 delegates shy of the 2,025 that the national Democratic party says he needs to secure the Democratic nomination.

But Clinton on Wednesday declared that the delegate threshold should be 2,209 or 2,210 delegates, a number that would include delegates from Michigan and Florida. Clinton won the votes in those states, but the Democratic Party voided the results because the primaries were held ahead of the schedule set by party rules.

"I think that there are a number of ways to resolve this but it does need to be resolved," she said at her news conference. "All I've said is you've got to figure out how to seat the delegates from Florida and Michigan that is a reflection of the votes that they cast because those were legitimate elections and they deserve to have those votes counted."

Campaign aides said they hoped news of her new loan would spark a new round of giving similar to a previous surge in February. But the disclosure also underscored a financial disadvantage that could ultimately seal her fate.