U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Sunday toured rural West Virginia, the place where Anna Jarvis came up with the concept for Mother's Day 100 years ago, sending the message that what the country needs is a mother in the White House.

The loyal base is expected to carry Clinton to a sizable victory in the primary on Tuesday, though it won't do much to close the gap between her and her rival Barack Obama, as media reports said Monday.

Though defeated in North Carolina primary after Obama's landslide win and his close second-place finish in Indiana, Clinton appeared to have acquiesced to pleas from party officials to refrain from attacking Obama directly. But she betrayed no signs that she's stepping down soon.

She told reporters stories about women who have changed history by pressing for equal rights and breaking into male-dominated careers after the tour.

Clinton's campaign said one reason she keeps forging ahead is supporters like the Mother's Day crowd that greeted her in Grafton -- rural and mostly women.

The campaign insisted she has committed to her supporters and to the voters in the upcoming states that she will carry it.

"It's not over until the lady in the pantsuit says it is," Clinton quoted from letters she said mothers had written her recently.

But most analysts agree even if, as expected, she racks up hefty wins in both West Virginia and Kentucky, it likely won't change the landscape of the race. Therefore, she'll have to drop out -- at the latest following the last primary on June 3.

(Xinhua News Agency via agencies May 12, 2008)