The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Washington

Hillary Clinton was full of defiance as the former first lady and her Democratic White House rival Barack Obama began their final full week of a history-making selection epic.

In the run-up to next Sunday's Puerto Rico primary, and the climactic contests two days later in Montana and South Dakota, Clinton scorned the pundits who believe her struggle to wrench the nomination from Obama is doomed. "I am running because I still believe I can win on the merits," she argued in an article for Sunday's New York Daily News, insisting that she and not the Illinois senator could best go "toe to toe" with Republican John McCain. "I'm standing up for the deepest principles of our party and for an America that values the middle class and rewards hard work," the New York senator said, while also pledging Democratic unity for November's presidential election. Clinton again parried outrage over her invocation Friday of Robert Kennedy's assassination in June 1968 as justification for staying in the prolonged race. Obama was conciliatory Saturday, arguing that "we should put it behind us." Nearly six months since the costliest primary race in US history kicked off in Iowa in early January, Obama leads with 1,970 delegates to Clinton's 1,780, according to RearlClearPolitics.com.