Obama strategist: Fight making Dems strong

WASHINGTON, May 11 (UPI) -- A strategist for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois said Sunday the drawn-out Democratic primary fight will make its eventual candidate stronger.

"On the whole, you know, I think this has been a good process for us and for the Democratic Party," David Axelrod told Fox News Sunday. "You know, we have registered 3.5 million new Democratic voters. The Obama campaign has organizations all over the country that are going to be ready to go. We just announced a 50-state registration drive for the fall. So in many ways, this has been a strengthening process."

Howard Wolfson, a Hillary Clinton strategist, agreed, saying the party has had "record turnout in state after state after state" as the primaries have continued.

Axelrod said the Obama campaign has had no discussion of possible vice presidential candidates, including Clinton. He also said the New York senator has not asked whether the Obama campaign would help her retire campaign debt if he is the nominee.