Clinton misrepresents her popularity by including invalid Michigan and Florida votes!

April 24, 2008 - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton parlayed her Pennsylvania primary victory into a prodigious $3.5 million overnight fundraising haul, and yesterday urged superdelegates to heed her self-defined lead in the popular vote when selecting the Democratic presidential nominee.

"More people have now voted for me than have voted for my opponent," said Mrs. Clinton, who is counting votes cast in the disqualified Florida and Michigan primaries. Otherwise, she still trails Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in the popular vote and more importantly, in delegates needed for the nomination.

Mrs. Clinton, whose cash-strapped campaign desperately needed the contribution boost Tuesday night, also said her nearly 10-point Pennsylvania win and her victories in other large swing states such as Ohio and Florida position her best to beat presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

But Obama and his supporters retorted that Obama is more likely to shake up the 2004 Bush-Kerry map by adding states such as Virginia, and that the results did not alter his prospects for capturing the nomination.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe ticked off 13 states in which Obama leads McCain in general election polls that Mrs. Clinton would lose - including Colorado, North Carolina, Oregon and Michigan. He added that "any Democrat" will carry California and New York, big states in the Clinton column.

"We can make Montana competitive," he said, while Mrs. Clinton is losing by double digits. "The best chance we'll have to win the general election is to expand the playing field."

Mr. Plouffe also gave reporters a math lesson, noting that Mrs. Clinton is likely to gain - at most - 12 delegates from her Pennsylvania win, adding that his boss is "less than 300 delegates away from securing the nomination."

To retake the delegate lead, the former first lady would need to win 70 percent of the vote in each of the remaining contests, he said.