AKRON, Ohio (AFP) – Hillary Clinton’s camp vowed Sunday she will resist calls to abandon the White House trail after pivotal nominating contests in Ohio and Texas, where rival Barack Obama hopes to land a knockout.
Several key Obama allies, and so far unaffiliated former 2008 candidate Bill Richardson had suggested the former first lady should consider folding her campaign if she fails to win the landslides she needs on Tuesday. “D Day is Tuesday.
We have to have a positive campaign after Tuesday,” said Richardson, warning that a prolonged Obama-Clinton joust could damage the party and offer a boost to likely Republican nominee Senator John McCain.
“Whoever has the most delegates after Tuesday, a clear lead, should be in my judgment the nominee.” The Democratic foes meanwhile rumbled across gritty midwestern Ohio, swapping gibes on national security, as polls showed the race deadlocked in the two states which could decide the dramatic Democratic race.
Obama, hoping to extend his current winning streak of 11 straight nominating contests and end Clinton’s quest, meanwhile hit back at her claim his whole campaign was based on one anti-war speech, and waded deep into economic issues.
One of his top allies, Senator Richard Durbin, said Clinton should look carefully at her prospects after Tuesday’s contests, as polls suggest she is unlikely to pull off the big wins she needs to overhaul her rival’s lead in nominating delegates.
“I hope that there’s an honest appraisal of her chances to win the nomination after Tuesday,” Durbin told Fox News Sunday. “And having made that appraisal … I hope she’ll understand that we need to bring our party together and prepare for a victory in November, which is the ultimate goal.”
Defeated 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Senator John Kerry, also backing Obama, piled on more pressure.
“In order to close the gap on pledged delegates, she’s got to win a very significant victory,” said Kerry on CNN. But Clinton’s communications chief Howard Wolfson gave no sign Clinton would quit after Tuesday, saying she would fight on through Pennsylvania in April.
“What I’m saying is, we’re going to have a great day on Tuesday. We’re going to win this nomination. This nomination fight is going to go forward after Ohio and Texas,” he said on ABC television.
“We’re going to go to Pennsylvania, where a lot more Americans are going to vote, and we’re going to be the nominee in Denver,” Colorado, where the
Democrats hold their nominating Convention in August. Clinton drove home more attacks on first-term senator Obama’s qualifications as commander in chief, while both hopefuls stressed pocket book issues, in a state hit hard by globalization and an economic downturn.
“You never know what crisis is going to happen,” Clinton said in Austintown.”I know that I will be able to defend our country.” Earlier, she had told fired-up supporters in another Ohio town, Westerville, that “this is a wartime election,” as her campaign rolled out 18 former admirals and generals to attest to her foreign policy spurs.
Obama’s foreign policy advisor Susan Rice dismissed Clinton’s claims of experience.
“It’s not enough to assert you have the experience to become commander-in-chief. That experience has to be backed up by a record of judgment,” Rice said. Obama said the plight of states like Ohio was so deep, that simply changing the party in the White House would not do.
“At a time like this the American people need real change,” he said. “They need a change in politics, a leader who can end the divisions in Washington so we can stop talking about the challenges that we face and actually start doing something,” he said.
The latest count of nominating delegates by website RealClearPolitics shows Obama leading by 1,389 to Clinton’s 1,279, with the freshman senator pulling into the lead after 11 nominating wins in a row.
A total of 2,025 delegates is needed for victory at the Democrats’ convention. Tuesday’s votes look unlikely to change that picture much, given that Democratic primaries award delegates on a proportional basis.
A Cleveland Plain Dealer poll found Senator Clinton slightly ahead in the economically struggling state, by 47-43 percent.
Obama led in Texas by 46-45 percent, according to polling by McClatchy Newspapers, MSNBC television and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.