Special Report: U.S. presidential election 2008

    WASHINGTON, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Democratic presidential forerunner Barack Obama dismissed the speculation that he could run as the vice presidential candidate for his rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to a TV report released on Saturday.

    "You won't see me as a vice presidential candidate -- you know, I'm running for president," the Illinois Senator said in an interview with CBS. "We have won twice as many states as Senator Clinton, and have a higher popular vote, and I think we can maintain our delegate count."

    After winning three primaries on March 4 and regaining her momentum, the New York Senator and former First Lady suggested that she was open to the idea of sharing the ticket with Obama, meaning accepting Obama as her vice presidential candidate.

US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) (L) looks into the audience as she and Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) (R) arrive for their last debate before the Ohio primary in Cleveland, Ohio Feb. 26, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    Former President Bill Clinton echoed his wife on Saturday in a campaign rally in Mississippi whose primary is set on Tuesday, saying a joint ticket pairing the two would be "almost unstoppable."

    "I know that she has always been open to it, because she believes that if you can unite the energy and the new people that he's brought in and the people in these vast swaths of small town and rural America that she's carried overwhelmingly, if had those two things together she thinks it'd be hard to beat," he said.

    So far, Obama has won 28 Democratic primaries and caucuses while Clinton won 17, including Florida and Michigan primaries that have been stripped all delegates who would vote at the nomination convention for violating the party's rule.

    However, neither Obama, with 1,527 delegates, nor Clinton, with1,428, is likely to win 2,025 delegates in the primaries and caucuses needed to secure the presidential candidacy.

    Super delegates who are granted to the party's senior officials and members are expected to play a decisive role in electing the Democratic presidential nominee.

Ohio becomes campaign center for Clinton, Obama

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama speaks during a rally at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 27, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, March 3 -- Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama waged a tight campaign fight across Ohio on Sunday two days before crucial voting that could virtually nail down the Democratic nomination or prolong the party battle into the spring.

    One prominent Democrat worried that extended infighting after the voting in four states on Tuesday could split the party into two camps and give a big boost to the presumptive Republican nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain. Full story

U.S. Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) gestures as he speaks at the CNN/Nevada Democratic Party debate at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) in Las Vegas, Nevada Nov. 15, 2007.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>