Candidates race against clock

By Ellen Wulfhorst

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Democratic presidential rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama took their neck-and-neck battle to the U.S. West on Saturday while John McCain projected an air of inevitability about winning the Republican nomination ahead of crucial Super Tuesday voting.

Candidates crisscrossed the country to woo voters in the countdown toward the multi-state primaries and caucuses on February 5 that will go a long way toward establishing clear front-runners in both political parties.

Campaigning in Nashville, Tennessee, Arizona Sen. McCain told supporters he did not want to appear overconfident but was "guardedly optimistic" about Tuesday's voting.

"I assume I will be the nominee of the party," he said.

McCain's chief rival for the Republican nomination, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, said he was banking on a groundswell of conservative fear at the prospect of the more moderate McCain winning the nomination which he predicted would keep him in the race beyond Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters on a flight to Minneapolis, Romney admitted he was not the front-runner three days before Tuesday's showdown but that the past two days had seen the race crystallize.

"I don't think it's going to be over on Tuesday night," Romney said. I wish it were over in my favor, I hope it's not over against me," he said.

In incomplete results on Saturday from Maine's Republican caucus, Romney led McCain by 53 percent to 22 percent.