Hillary Rodham Clinton tonight told congressional colleagues she would be open to becoming Barack Obama’s vice-presidential nominee, according to media reports.
Senator Hillary Clinton with her daughter Chelsea and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, at a rally in Sioux Falls yesterday. AP Photo/Elise Amendola
The Associated Press news agency reported tonight that Mrs Clinton, a New York Senator, made the comment during a conference call with other New York politicians, according a participant on the call.
The senator's remarks came in response to a question from Democratic Representative Nydia Velazquez who said she believed the best way for Obama to win over key voting blocs, including Hispanics, would be for him to choose Clinton as his running mate.
"I am open to it," Clinton is reported to have replied, if it would help the party's prospects in November.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton's campaign has denied media reports that she will concede defeat to Barack Obama tonight in the battle to become the Democratic presidential candidate.
An earlier report from Associated Press news agency said the former first lady will stop short of formally suspending or ending her race in her speech in New York City tonight. She will pledge to continue to speak out on issues like health care. But for all intents and purposes, two senior officials are reported as saying, the campaign is over.
However, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager Terry McAuliffe has denied the report saying Ms Clinton was "absolutely not" conceding the campaign.
Speaking this morning on NBC's Today programme, Mr McAuliffe said Ms Clinton would call Mr Obama the Democratic presidential nominee as soon as he secures the required number of delegates.
"If Senator Obama gets the number, I think Hillary Clinton will congratulate him and call him the nominee".
"She has given her heart and soul to this campaign."
Mr Obama is just 40.5 delegates away from securing the nomination. Between the pledged delegates he picks up today and another rush of superdelegate endorsements his campaign expects, the Illinois senator may reach the 2,118 delegates he needs to become the party's nominee as soon as today.
Democrats in South Dakota and Montana are casting the final votes in a grueling battle for the right to face Republican John McCain in November's presidential election, with 31 delegates to the August convention in Denver at stake
Superdelegate James Clyburn of South Carolina formally backed Mr Obama today and his support could influence other superdelegates.
Mr Clyburn is the third-ranking Democrat in the US House of Representatives and the top-ranking black member of Congress. Other House members were expected to follow his lead, party sources said.
"There are a lot of superdelegates who are waiting for the last couple of contests but I think that they are going to be making decisions fairly quickly after that," Mr Obama told reporters in Michigan today.
Voting ends in South Dakota at 7 pm MDT/9 p.m. EDT (2am Irish time), and in Montana an hour later, with results expected shortly after.
Ms Clinton and her campaign sent mixed signals yesterday about how long she would stay in a presidential race that she began as a heavy favorite but now has little chance of winning.
Campaigning in South Dakota, Clinton said the end of the voting today marked "the beginning of a new phase of the campaign" in which she will plead her case to superdelegates that she would be the strongest candidate against McCain in November.
"The decision will fall to the delegates empowered to vote at the Democratic convention. I will be spending the coming days making my case to those delegates," she told supporters in Yankton, South Dakota.
But her husband, former President Bill Clinton, sounded like he was counting down the hours at a campaign stop in South Dakota yesterday.
"This may be the last day I'm ever involved in a campaign of this kind," he said.
One of Ms Clinton's top supporters, Gov Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, told CNN he expected her to spend tomorrow and Thursday making her pitch to superdelegates.
"I don't think it's going to prevail, to be candid," he said. "Senator Obama is going to get the delegates he needs certainly by the end of the week, then I think Senator Clinton is going to do the right thing and move fairly decisively to unify the party and we will all follow her lead."
With no more campaign trips to plan, workers who handle Ms Clinton's advance travel arrangements have been told to go to New York or head home until further notice, aides said.
Mr Obama plans a victory celebration to kick-off the general-election campaign against Mr McCain after the South Dakota and Montana polls close tonight.
The Obama campaign has been urging superdelegates to make their endorsement before the voting ends today, so the delegates he wins in the two states can put him over the top in the Democratic race.
A group of 17 uncommitted Senate Democrats met yesterday to discuss a potential endorsement of Mr Obama. Many are poised to announce either today or wait another day to give Clinton a chance to bow out, Senate aides said.
Both Mr Obama and Ms Clinton will speak to a pro-Israeli lobbying group in Washington tomorrow, and Mr Obama told reporters he expected to be talking to Ms Clinton again soon.
He said he told her in a phone conversation on Sunday that "once the dust settled I was looking forward to meeting with her at a time and place of her choosing."
Agencies