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WASHINGTON: Hillary Clinton hit back hard at Barack Obama Wednesday
after her latest electoral drubbing, but the daunting size of her
task in slowing the new Democratic pacesetter was only just becoming
clear.
Now the underdog in the race for the party’s
White House nomination, Senator Clinton portrayed Obama as a
talented orator who dodged tough questions, as aides said big wins
on March 4 in Ohio and Texas would rescue her faltering campaign.
She argued the Illinois senator had no answers
to a worsening economic forecast, a mortgage crunch and a healthcare
crisis.
“I have solutions to these economic
challenges. The question today is, does Senator Obama?” she said
at a news conference in Texas.
Her campaign argued Obama’s rousing rhetoric
masked a paucity of policies, and debuted an ad in battleground
Wisconsin, which votes next Tuesday, accusing him of dodging
one-one-one debates.
“Maybe he’d prefer to give speeches than
have to answer questions?” said the ad, issued after Obama romped
to primary wins in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. on
Tuesday.
In a fundraising appeal to supporters meanwhile,
Clinton warned that despite recent reverses, she would not give up.
“Every time they start to count us out, we
prove them wrong,” she said. “And we’re going to keep proving
them wrong as many times as we need to until we win the White
House.”
But Obama, cresting a wave of momentum after his
eight straight wins in nominating primaries over the last week,
attempted to add heft to his rhetoric with a speech diagnosing
America’s economic woes.
Seeking inroads in Clinton’s working class
support base, Obama also included possible Republican general
election rival John McCain in his critique of a “failure” of
leadership in Washington.
“We are not standing on the brink of recession
due to forces beyond our control,” said Obama in a speech at a
General Motors assembly plant in Wisconsin. “It was a failure of
leadership and imagination in Washington—the culmination of
decades of decisions that were made or put off without regard to the
realities of a global economy and the growing inequality its
produced.”
He said that war in Iraq, which Senators Clinton
and McCain voted for, cost billions of dollars that could be used to
rebuild “crumbling schools and bridges, roads and buildings” and
fund healthcare or college educations.
As the candidates sparred, the reality of the
electoral equation facing Clinton ahead of the party convention to
anoint the nominee in August was becoming clear.
Obama aides claimed their man now had a
significant lead of 136 pledged delegates, those are doled out
proportionally after each state contest.
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said
Clinton would need to win remaining nominating showdowns by margins
of 25 to 30 points simply to draw level.
“We believe it is next to impossible for
Senator Clinton to close that pledged delegate count,” said
Plouffe. “Even the most creative math really does not get her,
ever, back to even in terms of pledged delegates,” he said.
-- AFP
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