Clinton ignores speculation and hopes for a big win

Under-pressure Hillary Clinton today refused to speculate about the future of her presidential campaign if she does not win tonight’s Pennsylvania primary decisively.

As the polls opened surveys showed Mrs Clinton with an advantage of five to 10%, down from 20% in her favour when the campaigning began.

With her campaign in debt and rival Barack Obama leading in elected delegates and the popular vote, many party heavyweights fear continuing the struggle will damage the Democrats’ chances against Republican John McCain in the November general election.

But Mrs Clinton, who has vowed in the past to take her campaign all the way to the August Democratic national convention in Denver, refused to directly answer a question about what happens after Pennsylvania if she does not win a sizeable victory.

“I don’t think the margin matters,” Clinton said in an interview on the NBC Today program.

Instead, she said, Mr Obama’s failure to score an upset in Pennsylvania would call into question “his ability to win the big states.” He lost primaries in California and New York.

Mr Obama conceded that he did not expect to win.

“I think we’ve trimmed that (the Clinton lead) back, but our view has always been that we’re the underdogs here,” he said. “I think she has to be heavily favoured to win.”

On the eve of the state primary, both appeared at raucous campaign events in a final pitch for votes in the most populous and delegate-rich state remaining in the nominating contest. Some four million Democrats were eligible to cast ballots, with 158 delegates to the party’s national nominating convention at stake.

Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama questioned each other’s character and readiness to be commander in chief in last-minute television ads.

The final days of the race spawned some of the nastiest campaigning by either, as they apparently sensed the balloting could be decisive in the historic race that could put the first woman or first African-American in the US presidency.

Underlining Democratic fears that the campaign was damaging both candidates, national polls already show Mr McCain running about even with either Democrat despite deep voter displeasure with Republican President George Bush and his handling of the Iraq war and the slumping American economy.