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Clinton, Obama go down to the wire in Texas, Ohio
SAN ANTONIO, Texas
Petroleumworld.com, Mar 03, 2008Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton Saturday waged a pitched battle for Texas and Ohio, three days before the two states vote on a possible day of destiny in the Democratic White House race.
The rivals set off on a frenzied weekend hop-scotch between two states blanketed by no-holds-barred television advertising blitzes, as their presidential campaign aides jousted to massage expectations before the votes.
Their get-out-the-vote struggles took on extra significance as new polls showed a virtual tie in the two states, leaving Tuesday's contests as unpredictable as any in the roller-coaster 2008 election.
Clinton, trying everything to keep her campaign alive, after Obama tore to 11 straight nominating contest wins, was swinging Saturday through Texas population centers including San Antonio and the Dallas area.
"We need a president again who is a fighter, a doer and a champion," Clinton said, opening her day with a jolt of energy from grass-roots volunteers who will herd Texan Democrats to vote in Tuesday's primaries, then get them to show up at evening caucuses, under the state's quirky two-vote nominating system.
She was due in economically depressed Ohio, for a cross-state trek Sunday.
Obama was meanwhile dropping into Rhode Island, which along with Vermont also holds a nominating contest Tuesday, before heading to Parma, a suburb of Cleveland, trying to undermine Clinton among her core blue-collar support.
As he rammed home his closing argument, Obama dismissed Clinton's promise to ignite political change as an empty vow not borne out by results.
"Real change isnt voting for George Bushs war in Iraq and then telling the American people it was actually a vote for more diplomacy when you start running for president," he was to say in Rhode Island, in remarks distributed before his speech.
"The title of the bill was 'A Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq.' What else were you voting for?"
Obama opposed the war, though unlike Clinton was not in the US Senate when the vote to endorse military action as taken in 2002.
Clinton's camp had billed Texas and Ohio as must-win encounters if the New York senator was to keep her campaign to be the first woman president alive.
But pre-vote spin from her camp appeared to be aimed at laying the ground for her to stay in the race, even if she doesn't pull off a sweep.
Obama's team argues that anything short of landslides for Clinton would be leave her well short of his lead of around 150 nominating delegates who will formally anoint the presidential pick at the party's August convention.
"The Clinton campaign has one task on March 4 and that is to really, seriously erode our (delegate) lead, and they are going to fail miserably on that measure," said Obama campaign chief David Plouffe.
A new Reuters/C-Span-Zogby survey found Obama leading Clinton 45 percent to 43 percent in Texas. A previous poll by Zogby released Friday had Obama up 48 to 42 percent.
In Ohio, the Democratic contenders were tied at 45 percent, according to Saturday's poll. It was conducted among 701 likely Democratic voters and also has a 3.8-point margin of error.
But a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll released Friday showed Clinton with a comfortable 46 to 38 percent lead in Ohio. The poll among 600 Democrats, taken between Tuesday and Thursday, has a four-point margin of error.
In Texas, Obama led 48 to 45 percent, according to the Fox News/Opinion Dynamics survey.
Clinton, 60, and Obama, 46, battling for the right to carry the Democratic banner in November against likely Republican nominee John McCain, took their ill-tempered rivalry to new heights on Friday.
In the most explosive moment yet of the campaign, a Clinton negative ad, suggested Obama would be found wanting in a dead-of-night foreign policy crisis.
"It's 3:00 am and your children are safe and asleep. But there's a phone in the White House and it's ringing," the male narrator says in the Clinton ad. "Something's happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers that call."
Obama was dismissive of her gambit. "The question is, what kind of judgment will you exercise when you pick up that phone? In fact, we have had a red phone moment. It was the decision to invade Iraq."
Story by Stephen Collinson from AFP
AFP 01 1705 GMT 03 08Copyright© 2007 Petroleumworld. All rights reserved.
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