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DALLAS, Texas: The destiny of the searing Democratic White House
battle is on the line in two key states Tuesday, with Barack Obama
seeking a knockout, and Hillary Clinton desperately reaching for a
lifeline.
Bold, brash Texas, and economically distressed
Ohio have the chance to deal a decisive blow in the increasingly
angry race, in which one hopeful will make history, as the first
black, or woman presidential nominee.
Obama, 46, hopes to take his winning streak to
15 straight nominating contests, on a day which also includes voting
in Rhode Island and Vermont.
Clinton, 60, needs to come out of Tuesday with a
reason to go on, as she currently trails Obama in nominating
delegates, fundraising, the popular vote and momentum, in the race
to battle likely Republican nominee John McCain.
Senator McCain, the Vietnam war hero who has
pulled off a stunning comeback after his campaign was left for dead
last year, hopes to finally nail down the Republican nomination, by
dispatching pesky challenger Mike Huckabee.
He is tipped to pick up the remaining support he
needs to cross the threshold of 1,191 delegates to the party
convention in September.
Should Clinton lose both Ohio and Texas, she
would face intense pressure to fold her White House campaign for the
good of the party.
But the campaign may be regretting the
categorical marker laid down by former President Bill Clinton last
month.
“If she wins in Texas and Ohio, I think
she’ll be the nominee,” Bill Clinton told supporters in
Beaumont, Texas. “If you don’t deliver for her, I don’t think
she can be. It’s all on you.”
In recent days, the Clinton campaign has
appeared to be scratching around for a reason to stay in the
contest, should she fail to pull off a double win, with recent polls
giving Obama a lead in the Lone Star state.
“If [Obama] is unable to win all four states,
it shows that Democrats are engaged in what some in the media have
referred to as buyer’s remorse, that there is an interest in
having this campaign go on and go on into at least Pennsylvania and
beyond,” Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said last week.
But the Obama campaign has dismissed as
“lunacy” Clinton’s argument that the race for the nominating
delegates, who will anoint the nominee, is still close.
They say the Illinois senator is more than 150
ahead, and say “superdelegates”—the 795 party luminaries who
can vote how they like at the party convention—are streaming to
Obama’s side.
The upshot, according to the Obama camp, is that
Clinton needs landslide wins in Ohio and Texas, Pennsylvania, which
votes April 22, and beyond, just to catch up.
-- AFP
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