在過去幾天，也許希拉里想過放棄、退出，但是在西弗吉尼亞州的一場漂亮的勝仗后，這位紐約參議員終于可以信心百倍的宣布她將一直走到最后。

以下是希拉里在西弗吉尼亞州取得勝利后的演說：

“I can lead this party to victory!” she boomed. “I am in this because I believe I am the best candidate!”

While her voice and her remarkable perseverance filled the hall at the Charleston Civic Centre, her supporters did not. Despite a record turnout at the polls, barely 500 people turned out to hear her victory speech.

Janet Reeves, grabbing the chance for a cigarette outside the venue as she waited for the former First Lady, admitted that she had only come after receiving an automated phone call invitation from the campaign that afternoon. After previous primaries, volunteers and supporters have fought over tickets.

“I know it’s over, but I don’t care about elected delegates and super-delegates and all that crap. Voting today gave me a chance to say who I want to president. And I don’t want Obama. I believe in her but I don’t believe in him,” she said.

She is not alone in mistrusting the young pretender, who thanks to the Democratic Party’s tortuous delegate system, is now the highly probable winner. For some it is incendiary pastor the Rev Jeremiah Wright that raises doubts; for others it is the suspicion that he is a Muslim or has Muslim relatives.

There are question marks over his patriotism and his wife’s, after she said her husband’s candidacy had made her proud of her country for the first time. For some, it is just the fact he is black.

All in all, voters in blue collar, conservative regions have decided they just don’t know enough about him. “He is too much of a mystery to us,” said Layne Ellis, who came to the rally at the last minute with a neighbour. Things are coming out about him I just don’t like.”

Voters like her may well opt for Senator John McCain, the Republican candidate. It will help Mr Obama enormously if his fellow Democrat bows out graciously and begins to explain to her supporters just who the man who beat her is.