Clinton and Obama face latest battle

5/6/2008 - 8:43:15 AM

Voters in Indiana and North Carolina will choose between Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the latest critical primary elections in the race to the White House today.

The latest round in the fierce 16-month campaign between the Democrats comes as both candidates predicted their protracted battle would continue for weeks yet.

Yesterday, the pair embarked on an intense 24 hours on the campaign trail with last-ditch appeals for support in the two states, which have emerged as major tests for both candidates.

Mr Obama needs to show the party's so-called superdelegates, almost 800 people who will decide the Democratic nominee in the close race, that the controversy over his former pastor, the Rev Jeremiah Wright, has not damaged his popularity.

Mrs Clinton, coming off a win in Pennsylvania two weeks ago, needs to seize on what has been one of the roughest patches in the Illinois Senator's campaign to boost her fading chances of becoming the party's nominee.

Mr Obama, who would be America's first black president if elected in November, is expected to do well among North Carolina's large African-American electorate while Mrs Clinton, who would be the first woman president, leads polls in Indiana.

In the run-up to today's contests, Mr Obama appeared to offer an olive branch to his rival's supporters, promising a united party in November which would prevent "another four years of George W Bush".

Mrs Clinton, who seemed to become angrier each day, presented herself as the champion of the working class, a key section of the electorate, who would fight against greedy, irresponsible villains, from energy traders to the federal government.

"I am tired of sitting here being a patsy, of sitting here, taking it," she said while perched on the back of a vintage Chevrolet pickup truck in Gastonia, North Carolina, at the weekend.

Yesterday, the two rivals focused on a rare key policy difference in their plans to tackle the troubled US economy.

Front-runner Mr Obama dismissed the former first lady's plan to offer Americans a summer gas tax holiday as "pandering to voters" and said she was working from the same political playbook as Republican rival John McCain.

Mrs Clinton said she was "not going to put my lot in with economists", many of whom have criticised her plan, and added that she wanted oil companies to pay the gas tax cost this summer "instead of having the money come out of the pockets of consumers and drivers".

Mr Obama jetted from Indiana to North Carolina and back again over a several-hour span and Mrs Clinton held five events across the two states, both candidates predicted the race would go on for a few weeks yet.

Mr Obama told NBC's 'Today' show that Americans would have to wait until the final contests of the Democratic primary season on June 3 to discover who will be the party's nominee.

"We will be in a position to make a decision who the Democratic nominee is going to be (after June 3)," the 46-year-old Mr Obama said.

"I will be the Democratic nominee."

Mrs Clinton also refused to predict today's results, but told CNN's American Morning that her campaign had made up some ground after falling behind.

A Suffolk poll showed Mr Obama was trailing Mrs Clinton 43% to 49% in Indiana, with a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points, but 58% of respondents also gave him a favourable rating, compared with Mrs Clinton's 53%.

Following Mr Obama's defeat in Pennsylvania last month, he has struggled to move past a potentially damaging row over his former pastor's controversial comments, while Mrs Clinton has portrayed herself as the Democrats' best hope for winning the White House, in part because she is more popular with the party's working-class base.

Top Democratic officials have voiced increased concern that the prolonged race will undercut the party's chances to present a united front for November's general election.

Mrs Clinton's aides lowered expectations for a victory in North Carolina, but sounded more optimistic about Indiana, where demographics seem to lean in her favour.

Having consistently attracted record levels of financial support from voters, Mr Obama has outspent the 60-year-old New York senator by around US$5m (€3.2m) - roughly a third more - on television adverts in both states combined.

Mr Obama also has the support of more national convention delegates - 1,743.5 to 1,607.5, according to the latest Associated Press figures - but neither candidate will reach the 2,025 needed to clinch the party's nomination without the so-called superdelegates, party leaders and others whose votes are not tied to the primary season results.

Mr Obama also won an extremely close race in Guam at the weekend, but because of the way the party apportions delegates, each candidate received two.

A total of 187 delegates are at stake today.