WRAPUP 7-Clinton cruises to easy West Virginia win

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By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton scored a big victory over front-runner Barack Obama in West Virginia on Tuesday, but it could be too little and too late to stop his march to the Democratic presidential nomination.

Clinton hoped the easy win in a state dominated by the white working-class voters who have been her biggest supporters will turn around her campaign and boost her argument she is the Democrat with the best chance to beat Republican John McCain in November's election.

But Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, retains a nearly insurmountable advantage in delegates who will select the nominee at the party convention in August. West Virginia had 28 delegates at stake.

Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, has vowed to keep fighting despite dwindling prospects and a mounting campaign debt.

"I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't believe that I could be the best president for West Virginia and America and that I was the stronger candidate to take on John McCain in the fall," she said at a rally in Logan, West Virginia, on Monday.

Obama already was looking to November on Tuesday, visiting the general election battleground of Missouri, with stops planned in Michigan on Wednesday and in Florida next week.

He did not make a public appearance after the West Virginia voting ended, but a campaign spokesman said he left Clinton a congratulatory message on her cell phone.