By AFP,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : Hillary Clinton clashed with Democratic foe Barack Obama in a pivotal debate Wednesday as daunting poll data clouded her comeback hopes, six days ahead of their next White House nominating showdown.
Obama immediately attempted to defuse a controversy over his comment last week that some small-town Americans were “bitter” and so turned to God and guns, which prompted Clinton to brand his rhetoric “elitist.”
“What I have been struck by is frustration,” Obama said in the rivals’ first face-to-face debate for seven weeks, following weeks of fearsome long-distance sniping between their campaigns.
“People are frustrated, not only with jobs moving, incomes being flat, and health care too expensive. “But also that special interests have come to dominate Washington. And they don’t feel like they’re being listened to.”
Clinton paraphrased the opening lines of the US constitution, which was signed yards away from their debate venue in Philadelphia. “I believe in all my heart that we the people can have the future our children and grandchildren so richly deserve,” said the New York senator.
The former first lady was under intense pressure to change the complexion of the contest in her one-one-one clash with Obama in Pennsylvania, which holds the next primary in the roller-coaster Democratic race on April 22..
Clinton has attacked Obama for days over his “bitter” comment, but latest opinion surveys suggested her rival had escaped serious immediate damage. Obama has also spent the last six weeks since the Ohio and Texas primaries battling the fallout from incendiary comments by his former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
Polls show Clinton has stalled Obama’s attempt to catch her in Pennsylvania, but her lead of around six points did not suggest the kind of blowout win she needs to sow doubts about Obama’s presidential viability in the minds of top party leaders. Clinton has been written off before and has pulled off surprising comebacks.
But her White House hopes are on thin ice because she trails Obama in nominating contests won, elected delegates and the popular vote. Her only chance now is to convince nearly 800 Democratic grandees called superdelegates that Obama cannot win November’s general election against Republican John McCain.
There was more grim news for Clinton in a Washington Post/ABC News poll which gave Obama a 10-point lead when Democrats nationwide were asked who they would like to see go up against McCain. Obama was up two-to-one among Democrats asked who was most electable in a general election, undermining Clinton’s quest for the hearts of the superdelegates.
And more Americans had an unfavorable view of her than at any time since the Post and ABC started measuring the question in 1992. Some 54 percent of those asked had an unfavorable impression of the former first lady — up from 40 percent, after her famous comeback victory in the New Hampshire primary in early January.
A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll meanwhile showed Obama up 40 percent to 35 percent in Indiana, another rust-belt primary set for May 6, where she needs a win. An earlier Survey USA poll in the state, however, had Clinton up 16 points.
The LA Times poll also had Obama up 13 points in North Carolina, which also votes on May 6. Other surveys suggest the man bidding to be the first African-American president will benefit from the southern state’s large number of black Democratic voters.
Earlier Wednesday, Obama met Jewish community leaders in Philadelphia and played down the row over his remarks. “I’m suggesting people are bitter about the state of their economic lives (and) the Washington beltway hall of mirrors has just gone nuts,” Obama told reporters.
“Then they open the paper, look at the polling yesterday, it turns out most people it hasn’t had an impact on, in terms of how they’re thinking.” Obama got a vote of confidence on Wednesday from rock megastar Bruce Springsteen, who said the Illinois senator’s comments on working-class voters had been ripped out of context.
“I’ve been following the campaign and I have now seen and heard enough to know where I stand. Senator Obama, in my view, is head and shoulders above the rest,” Springsteen wrote on his website. “He speaks to the America I’ve envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems.”