San Juan, Puerto Rico ? Hillary Rodham Clinton won a lopsided, but largely symbolic victory Sunday in Puerto Rico’s presidential primary, the final act in a weekend of tumult that pushed Barack Obama tantalizingly close to the Democratic presidential nomination.

The former first lady was winning roughly two-thirds of the votes as she continued a strong run through the late primaries.

Before cheering supporters, she predicted she would have more combined votes than her rival when the primaries end Tuesday, claimed victories in key states and said that no contender will have enough delegates to claim the nomination.

“In the final assessment I ask you to consider these questions. Which candidate best represents the will of the people who voted in this historic election?” she said in an appeal to some 200 uncommitted superdelegates who hold the balance of power in the fight for the nomination.

“Which candidate is best able to lead us to victory in November and which candidate is best able to lead our nation as our president in the face of unprecedented challenges at home and abroad?”

Obama and his aides projected confidence, and even in defeat, he gained 17 delegates in Puerto Rico, leaving him 47 short of the 2,118 needed to clinch the nomination.

Contrary to Clinton, they predicted he was on track to gain a delegate majority shortly after the primaries in South Dakota and Montana, and questioned her popular vote claim. Her assertion includes estimates for caucuses in Iowa, Nevada, Maine and Washington state, where no official candidate popular vote is available. It also includes the results from Florida, where no campaigning occurred, as well as Michigan, where Obama did not receive any votes because his name was not on the ballot.

Campaigning in Mitchell, S.D., the Illinois senator praised the former first lady in terms usually reserved for a vanquished rival.

“First of all, Senator Clinton is an outstanding public servant, she has worked tirelessly during this campaign : and she is going to be a great asset when we go into November,” he told his audience. “Whatever differences Senator Clinton and I may have, those differences pale in comparison to the other side.”

Obama’s confidence in the outcome of the historic battle between a woman and a black for the nomination reflected the results of Saturday’s meeting of the Democratic Party’s rules and bylaws committee. Before an audience that jeered and cheered by turns, the panel voted to seat disputed delegations from Michigan and Florida, but give each delegate only one-half vote rather than the full vote sought by the Clinton campaign.

While the decision narrowed the gap between Clinton and Obama, it also erased the former first lady’s last, best chance to change the course of the campaign.

With all precincts reporting, the Puerto Rico vote count showed Clinton with 263,120 votes, or 68 percent, to Obama’s 121,458, or 32 percent.