Obama, Clinton brace for battle
06/05/2008 10:38  - (SA)  

Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton speaks during a campaign stop at a train depot in High Point, North Carolina. (Elise Amendola, AP)

More celeb backing for Obama Clinton, Obama step up battle Obama battles rocky period Obama beats Clinton by 7 votes Obama, Clinton in tight race New plan for Clinton, Obama? Chelsea campaigns for Hillary Obama's daughters unimpressed Prize backing for Clinton Clinton 'more electable' Obama pastor defends sermons

US Elections Special Report  The Candidates  Features  The Issues

Evansville, Indiana - Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton face their latest day of destiny on Tuesday as Democrats in Indiana and North Carolina gear up to vote in the party's electrifying presidential race.

Opinion polls pointed to another messy draw on the biggest single day of voting left in the epic battle for the Democratic nomination, with Obama tipped to win the North Carolina primary and Clinton ahead in Indiana.

The rivals raced through a frenetic dawn-to-midnight campaign swing in the two states on Monday but both signalled the contest would drag on through the bitter end of the primary calendar on June 3, in Montana and South Dakota.

'I try to do as best as I can'

"We hope to do as well as we can, we started out pretty far behind," Clinton told reporters on a late-night flight across Indiana.

"I try to do as best as I can, I don't make predictions," she said, just ahead of her last rally in the state.

The former first lady also took another swing at OPEC, after oil prices busted the symbolic $120-a-barrel barrier.

"They can no longer be a cartel, a monopoly that get together once every couple of months in some conference room in some plush place in the world," Clinton said, sparking cheers in a fire station in Indiana's Chicago suburbs.

Clinton's camp admits she cannot overtake the Illinois senator in the count of pledged delegates who will formally anoint the nominee at the Democratic convention in August.

So she is pinning her hopes on persuading nearly 800 superdelegates, who look set to have the deciding vote, that he cannot beat Republican presidential candidate John McCain in November.

Election liability

But Obama dismissed Clinton's claims he may be a general election liability, after a punishing month in April which sucked some of the euphoria out of his candidacy.

"Once you're the front-runner, then it is, I think, the obligation of the candidates who are behind to try to whack you over the head, and the press is happy to oblige," Obama said.

"So there was a kitchen-sink strategy employed that was throwing a whole bunch of stuff at me.

"But if you think about it ... the fact that we're still standing here and still moving forward towards the nomination, I think, indicates the degree to which the core message of this campaign is the right one."

Tuesday's voting was likely to shed light on whether Obama, who is vying to become America's first black president, has been damaged by the fallout from racially tinged remarks by his former pastor Jeremiah Wright.

What is this?    Yahoo    Digg  Del.icio.us  Facebook Brought to you by OUTsurance Car Insurance News24 on mobile News24 on facebook profile