Clinton hammers Obama as he launches recovery bid
by Stephen CollinsonWed Apr 30, 1:00 PM ET
Hillary Clinton made ground ahead of two pivotal White House nominating contests, as her Democratic foe Barack Obama Wednesday battled back from another uproar sparked by his fiery former pastor.
The rivals fought another day of pitched turf battles in midwestern Indiana and North Carolina on the east coast, which hold crucial primaries on Tuesday in a key twist in the end-game of their epic race.
Though Obama leads in nominating contests, elected delegates and the all-important fundraising stakes, Clinton appears to be closing on Obama in both states after her campaign-saving victory in Pennsylvania last week.
"This race isn't decided yet, no matter what the Obama campaign would like you to think," Clinton said in a fundraising message to supporters, as she hammered Obama for rejecting a gasoline tax holiday on the campaign trail.
The New York senator needs to capitalize on Obama's recent struggles, as she tries to convince "superdelegates" -- Democratic political leaders who effectively hold the nomination in their hands -- that Obama is unelectable.
A Howey-Gauge poll in Indiana released Tuesday had Obama up by just 47 to 45 percentage points, well within the margin of error, with eight percent of likely primary voters undecided.
Clinton had trailed by 15 points in the same poll in February.
A Public Policy poll had Clinton up eight points, weighting the average of recent polls in the state by RealClearPolitics.com in her favor, showing her up two points.
Indiana is a true battleground between the rivals, as it is packed with blue-collar white voters feeling the economic pinch who normally favor Clinton, but much of it is blanketed by the media market in Obama's hometown of Chicago.
In North Carolina, a state where Obama hopes a large African-American population will help carry him to victory, he leads the RealClearPolitics average by 10 points, but a Survey USA poll Tuesday had him up by only five.
Clinton Wednesday drove to a gas station with a sheet metal worker from South Bend, Indiana, to highlight high gas prices.
She vowed to break the monopoly of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), cartel which produces 40 percent of the world's oil.
"I am tired of OPEC setting the price and determining how much supply there is, by any definition that is a monopoly," Clinton said.
"We are going to use every tool at our disposal as a nation to try to break that up."
With many Democrats fearing the divisive race between Obama and Clinton could harm their chances of beating Republican presumptive nominee John McCain in November, Clinton also called for unity.
She said it would be the "height of political foolishness" for Democrats angered that their favorite did not win the nomination to back McCain.
"Anyone, anyone who voted for either of us should be absolutely committed to voting for the other," Clinton told the Indianapolis Star.
"I'm going to shout that from the mountaintops and the valleys, and everywhere I can, no matter what the outcome of the nominating process is."
Media commentators meanwhile assessed how deeply Pastor Jeremiah Wright's latest fiery comments had damaged the Obama campaign, after the Illinois Senator sharply rejected his friend of 20 years on Tuesday.
"I am outraged by the comments," Obama said on Tuesday, portraying Wright, who made a weekend media tour, as antithetical to his calls for unity.
"I have known Reverend Wright for almost 20 years," he said of the man who conducted his marriage and baptized his two daughters, as he spoke to reporters in Winston Salem, North Carolina.
Wright had previously said that AIDS was a racist plot created by the US government and said after the September 11 attacks in 2001 that black citizens should not sing "God Bless America" but "God Damn America" to protest their historic treatment by whites.
Neither Clinton nor Obama can now reach the 2,025 threshold of pledged delegates doled out in primary and caucus contests needed to claim the Democratic nomination outright.
So the fate of the party's presidential pick to take on Republican Senator John McCain lies in the hands of the nearly 800 superdelegates who can vote how they like at the party's convention in Denver, Colorado, in August. |
