Associated Press
Hormigueros, Puerto Rico – Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday offered a spiritual defense for continuing her presidential campaign, as she sought to put to rest the uproar over her comments about the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.
Speaking to a full congregation at the Pabellon de la Victoria evangelical church, Clinton spoke in measured terms about faith in the face of adversity.
“There isn’t anything we cannot do together if we seek God’s blessing and if we stay committed and are not deterred by the setbacks that often fall in every life,” Clinton said.
Clinton is campaigning for Puerto Rico’s primary on June 1, which offers 55 pledged delegates to the national Democratic convention. The New York senator is expected to win the contest, thanks partly to her ties to the large Puerto Rican community in her home state.
Clinton spoke of her determination to stay in the race despite trailing Illinois Sen. Obama, who picked up three more superdelegates in Hawaii on Sunday, giving him a total of 1,977 delegates, just 49 delegates short of the 2,026 needed to clinch the nomination. Clinton still has 1,779.
“If I had listened to those who had been talking over the last several months we would not be having this campaign in Puerto Rico today,” she said, alluding to calls during the past few months for her to drop out of the race and support Obama.
“But I believe this is an opportunity unlike any in recent history for the needs and interests and diversity of the people of Puerto Rico to be in the spotlight. This is an opportunity to educate everyone about this wonderful place,” Clinton said.
In an op-ed piece in Sunday’s New York Daily News, Clinton revisited her reference to the June 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy during a meeting Friday with a South Dakota newspaper’s editorial board when she was asked whether she would stay in the presidential race. Clinton’s comments were sharply criticized, and she later said she regretted any offense she might have caused.
“I was making the simple point that given our history, the length of this year’s primary contest is nothing unusual,” Clinton wrote. “But I was deeply dismayed and disturbed that my comment would be construed in a way that flies in the face of everything I stand for – and for everything I am fighting for in this election.”
Campaigning for his wife Sunday in South Dakota, Bill Clinton said she treated unfairly for the assassination reference. “That really made my blood boil,” he said.
On television Sunday, top advisers to both Clinton’s and Obama’s campaigns said they were moving on from the issue.
“This issue is done,” David Axelrod, Obama’s top strategist, declared on ABC’s “This Week.”
In London, meanwhile, former President Carter said Sunday that Clinton should abandon her battle by early June.
“I’m a superdelegate, having been president before, and I think that a lot of us superdelegates will make a decision … quite rapidly, after the final primary on June 3,” Carter told Sky News. “I think at that point it will be time for her to give it up.” Carter has not declared his preference.
In Puerto Rico, Clinton took the stage after more than an hour of joyful noise – religious singing and dancing, led by an eight-piece band and 16-person chorus. Women and girls in bright red, blue and white dresses danced in front of Clinton, shaking tambourines as parishioners clapped and waved.
Then it was off to a beach in Boqueron on the southwest coast, where Clinton was mobbed by vacationers, some still dripping wet from swimming. She also was treated to a traditional dance by girls in bright, multicolored tiered skirts.
“We haven’t been excited about a presidential campaign until this one. We love her,” said Eileen Baez, a local school principal.
Later in the day, Clinton waded into the politics of U.S.-Cuba relations, saying there are some promising signs of change under new leader Raul Castro, but more substantive moves must be made.
Cuba, she said, should “take immediate action to demonstrate its good faith” by releasing political prisoners, allow free speech, and hold open and competitive elections.
“There is a great opportunity in the future for close relationships between the United States and Cuba and I would certly reach out a hand in friendship if real change were to take place,” she said. “But I will not give away the chance for real change.”
Clinton was spending the Memorial Day weekend campaigning in Puerto Rico, and may return before the primary. Obama campaigned in Puerto Rico on Saturday, but returned to the mainland to give a commencement address Sunday at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn.
Obama urged the graduates to “make us believe again” by dedicating themselves to public service.
“We may disagree as Americans on certain issues and positions, but I believe we can be unified in service to a greater good. I intend to make it a cause of my presidency, and I believe with all my heart that this generation is ready and eager and up to the challenge,” he said.
The Illinois senator filled in for Edward M. Kennedy, the longtime Massachusetts senator who had planned to deliver the graduation address to a class that includes his stepdaughter, Caroline Raclin. He backed out after being diagnosed last week with a cancerous brain tumor.
Kennedy has endorsed Obama, who peppered the speech with references to the Kennedy legacy, including John F. Kennedy urging Americans to ask what they can do for their country, the Peace Corps and Robert Kennedy, to whom Obama has been compared.
Associated Press writer Christopher Wills in Middletown, Conn., contributed to this report.
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