Wednesday, May 07, 2008

By THOMAS FITZGERALD , The Philadelphia Inquirer

last updated: May 06, 2008 08:42:56 PM

PHILADELPHIA —

Barack Obama halted his big-state losing streak Tuesday with a convincing victory in the North Carolina primary, while Hillary Rodham Clinton clung to the lead in Indiana as she sought to keep alive her slim hopes of capturing the Democratic nomination.

A split decision would mean their long battle would continue, at least for a time. "Full speed ahead," Clinton told supporters in Indianapolis.

Still, with Obama holding a steady advantage in the overall delegate tally - a lead certain to widen - Clinton likely will face renewed pressure within the Democratic Party to end her candidacy.

Obama's recent stumbles on the campaign trail and questions about his appeal to white working-class voters have allowed Clinton to keep fighting, arguing that she is more electable in the fall.

Obama countered that argument as he celebrated his win in Raleigh, N.C. It was a "victory in a big state, a swing state, and a state where we will compete to win if I am the Democratic nominee," Obama said.

"We have seen that it's possible to overcome the politics of division and distraction ... the same old negative attacks that are always about scoring points and never about solving our problems," he said.

Obama advisers said that his strong performance showed he had withstood the worst stretch of his campaign, including the re-emergence of his controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.

In her remarks, Clinton said that middle class Americans might feel "invisible" in their struggles. But, she said, "I see you and I hear you, and I know how hard you are working ... and I will never stop fighting for you."

Exit polls showed the vote followed the familiar racial contours of other contests in the marathon battle for the Democratic nomination.

In North Carolina, Clinton was leading 59 percent to 36 percent among white voters, who cast just under two-thirds of the ballots. Black voters - who cast one-third of the ballots - were supporting Obama over Clinton 91 percent to 6 percent.

In Indiana, Clinton was leading 60 percent to 40 percent among white voters, with a 17-point advantage among white men, often the swing voters in the Democratic contest.

Black voters, who were 15 percent of the vote in Indiana, supported Obama by 92 percent to 8 percent.

The candidates were battling for 187 pledged delegates - 115 in North Carolina and 72 in Indiana - the largest single day left on the nominating calendar.

Overall, Obama led Clinton 1,746.5 to 1,607.5 in total delegates heading into yesterday's balloting, according to the Associated Press. Because Democratic rules award delegates proportionally, it is difficult for a candidate to dig out of a deficit, absent a series of blowout wins. And Clinton is running out of time, with just six contests remaining.

In any event, neither candidate can reach the 2,025 delegates required to win the nomination without support from superdelegates, the party leaders and elected officials who are automatically given seats at the convention; they are not bound to vote according to primary and caucus results.

Now the spotlight will shine ever more brightly on the 264 superdelegates. For Obama, the Indiana and North Carolina primaries offered the chance to close the book on two months of trouble over his personal associations and gaffes. The troubles peaked last week when Wright came roaring back into the news with a defense of earlier anti-American statements that Obama had denounced. During an April 28 news conference in Washington, Wright called criticism of him an "attack on the black church."

When tapes of Wright sermons first appeared, Obama said he could not disown the man who was his spiritual mentor. This time, he did, calling Wright's latest remarks "outrageous" and "destructive."

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Obama had not won a single large state since routing Clinton in Wisconsin on Feb. 19. Losses in Ohio in March and Pennsylvania last month showed Obama's relative weakness with white working-class voters, allowing Clinton to argue that she would be the stronger nominee.

Despite his recent difficulties, Obama has done better among superdelegates than has Clinton, picking up 20 endorsements to her 11 in the last two weeks.

Since Clinton's nine-point victory in Pennsylvania on April 22, the campaign has morphed into a competition over who can seem more in touch with the working class.

Clinton campaigned as a rip-snorting populist who railed against brokers who suckered people into subprime mortgages and "Wall Street money managers" who pay less than their fair share of taxes. She proposed suspending the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax for the summer to relieve hard-pressed consumers, making up lost revenue with a windfall-profits tax on oil companies.

That gave Obama an opening to attack the proposal - universally panned by economists - as "political pandering" that would save consumers pennies without addressing the nation's dependence on oil. "It's a stunt," Obama said in Evansville, Ind. "It's what Washington does."

Obama was also able to return to his winning theme from earlier in the campaign, that he can transform politics, changing the subject from Wright. For her part, Clinton said that Obama, in the words of a TV ad, did not "get it."

"Well, you know, for a lot of people $20 is something, right?" Clinton said Monday at a firehouse in Merrillville, Ind. "Twenty dollars means something."

Combating Clinton's portrayal of him as elitist and out of touch, Obama appeared more often in front of small groups than the giant rallies of yore and in settings designed to highlight his regular-guyness. He and his wife, Michelle, ate Subway sandwiches with a working family in Beech Grove, Ind.; the candidate took deep drinks from a can of Budweiser at a VFW hall; shot a couple of basketball games of P-I-G with neighborhood kids; and took his young daughters roller skating.