Clinton Loans $5
Million to Campaign, McCain Tries to
Appease Conservatives

Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama girded themselves for more fierce battles in their tight race for the Democratic presidential nomination, as Clinton disclosed she lent millions of dollars to her presidential campaign to fuel the costly White House fight.

Republican front-runner John McCain, meanwhile, reached out to his conservative critics with an appeal Wednesday to find ''something we can agree on'' as he focused on translating his big ''Super Tuesday'' wins into the party's presidential nomination.

In a sign of Obama's growing financial advantage, Clinton acknowledged Wednesday that she loaned her campaign $5 million late last month as Obama was outraising and outspending her heading into the Democrats' 22-state contests on Tuesday. Some senior staffers on her campaign also are voluntarily forgoing paychecks as the campaign heads into the next round of contests.

''And I think the results last night proved the wisdom of my investment,'' the former first lady said, one day after splitting victories with Obama.

McCain's sweep of races in California, New York, and seven other states firmly put the Arizona senator on track for the party's White House nomination.

McCain sought Wednesday to smooth his path by attempting to convince his harshest Republican critics who are angered that he breaks with party-line conservative views on issues such as immigration.

''I do hope that at some point we would just calm down a little bit and see if there are areas that we can agree on for the good of the party and for the good of the country,'' he said, addressing right-wing pundits who argue he is too liberal for the party.

Nearly complete delegate returns from coast-to-coast races on Tuesday left McCain with 707 delegates, nearly 60% of the 1,191 needed to win the nomination at the convention in St. Paul, Minn., this summer. That was far ahead of his rivals.

Mitt Romney, who withdrew from the race Thursday, had 294 delegates; Mike Huckabee, 195; and Texas congressman Ron Paul had 14.

On the Democratic side, Clinton and Obama split the spoils in their Tuesday contests. The mixed results tightened an already close race. Both Democrats would be formidable adversaries for McCain, as the Republican Party has been closely associated by voters with the unpopular President George W. Bush.

Clinton won in eight key races, including the most valuable, California and New York, but Obama was close behind with wins in at least 13 of the 22 states that held Democratic contests Tuesday, and he has fresh momentum as the race moves into territory where he would seem to have an edge.

The Democratic delegate count lagged because of party rules that award delegates proportionally rather than the winner-take-all approach that Republicans use in some states.

Clinton had 1,045 delegates, to 960 for Obama, out of the 2,025 needed to secure victory at the party convention in August. Clinton's advantage is partly due to her lead among so-called superdelegates, members of Congress and other party leaders who are not selected in primaries and caucuses -- and who are also free to change their minds.

On Wednesday, Obama offered some pointed advice to superdelegates. He said if he winds up winning the most delegates in voting, they ''would have to think long and hard about how they approach the nomination when the people they claim to represent have said, 'Obama's our guy.'''

Delegates still to be allocated included 25 in New Mexico, where Democratic voting remained too close to call. The southwestern state's Democrats were to begin examining more than 17,000 provisional ballots Thursday to determine a winner. Such ballots are given to voters who go to the wrong site or whose names are not on registered voter lists.

Obama campaigned Wednesday as the Democrat tough enough to withstand Republican attacks in the general election, arguing Wednesday that he has been tested by the hard-driving Clinton campaign.

''The Clinton research operation is about as good as anybody's out there,'' he told a news conference. ''I assure you that having engaged in a contest against them for the last year, that they've pulled out all the stops.... We can take a punch. We're still standing.''

Obama is in a good financial position for upcoming contests. Officials with both campaigns have said Obama raised $32 million in January and Clinton raised $13.5 million, a significant gap between the two that allowed Obama to place ads in virtually every Super Tuesday state and to get a head start on advertising in primaries and caucuses over the next week.

Buoyed by strong fund-raising and a primary calendar in February that plays to his strengths, Obama plans a campaign blitz through a series of states holding contests this weekend and will compete to win primaries in Maryland, Virginia, and the Washington, D.C. area next week and Hawaii and Wisconsin the following week. Clinton, with less money to spend, will instead concentrate on Ohio and Texas, large states with primaries March 4 and where polling shows her with a significant lead.

Clinton's personal loan illustrated her financial disadvantage and her desire to pick her targets with care. She sent an e-mail appeal to donors Wednesday seeking $3 million in three days -- an effort, that if successful, would match the fund-raising rate Obama averaged for the entire month of January. (AP)