Time running short for Obama

DES MOINES: He has the charisma, legions of adoring young supporters and a bulging campaign war chest, but time is running short for Barack Obama to catch 2008 White House rival Hillary Clinton.   

The Democratic Senator, 46, on a crusade to cleanse embittered US politics, has injected freshness and dynamism into the presidential campaign.   

But he is struggling to shift a so-far immovable force: Clinton, who despite minor gaffes, tops every key poll -- some by double digits.

After a 10-month campaign, just 54 days remain for Obama to overhaul the former first lady before the first nominating contest, the Iowa caucuses on January 3.   

"When we started this campaign back in February, there were a lot of people who even doubted we could make it where we are today," Obama told a raucous rally of supporters chanting his catch-phrase "fired-up!" Saturday.   

But firing up devoted followers is one thing, halting the Clinton juggernaut another.   

Obama's asset as a new voice is the flip side of his weakness: he is still green as a campaigner, analysts said.   

"Obama has had a number of missteps that we can chalk up to inexperience," said Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Iowa's Drake University.   

Obama's offer earlier this year to meet leaders of US enemies like North Korea and Iran played into the Clinton theme he is too naive to be entrusted with the Oval Office.   

It may have also caused Democrats, who believe President George W. Bush stole the 2000 election and unfairly skewered John Kerry on national security in 2004, to envision Obama as the target of fierce Republican assaults.   

And the Illinois senator's message, of hope and healing divisions, sometimes seems to jar with the party's acerbic mood.   

Edwards is running from the the left, and Clinton is running from the right, and Obama is running from above," Goldford said, questioning whether Obama's lofty rhetoric fits the mood of Democrats.   

Obama is also hampered by expectations, after bursting on the scene with a soaring speech at the Democratic convention in 2004, which left the party swooning.   

While hitting the heights several times since, Obama also sometimes lapses into the plodding persona of the law professor he once was and is yet to hit top form in a Democratic debate.   

Obama has also rejected the idea that his race is a factor for voters, as he strives to become America's first African-American president. 

Could it be that Obama's problems spring, not from his weakness, but Clinton's strengths?   

"The answer is so clear in the poll data ... number one is strong leadership, the other is electability," said Steffen Schmidt, professor of political science at Iowa State University.   

An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll this week found Clinton had a 76 percent to 41 percent lead among Democrats asked who had the knowledge and experience to be president.   

The Iowa caucuses will be a moment of truth for Obama and another top Democrat John Edwards. Should Clinton win, she may roll all the way to the nomination.   

But there are glimmers of hope for her rivals.   

Iowa voters are notorious for making up their minds late, and many Democrats elsewhere are only now tuning into the race.   

The Iowa race is very close, virtually a dead heat and Cary Covington, political science professor at the University of Iowa said that "absent some major mistake from the Clinton campaign" that is the way it will stay.   

So, Obama has just seven weeks to change the dynamic.   

First, he must establish momentum. Aides say that in four early primary states New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina, Obama is "closing in" on Clinton.    

Obama is increasingly targeting Clinton's weaknesses, accusing her of dodging questions after a shaky performance in the last Democratic debate.   

He argues he is more likely to expand the Democratic tent in 2008, than Clinton, with her high negative poll ratings.   

But attacking Clinton calls for delicacy. Her camp already says he has soiled his "politics of hope."    And gotcha politics doesn't seem Obama's game.   

"If he goes negative, there is a possibility that it might even hurt him," said Costas Panagopoulos, of the Campaigns Management program at Fordham University.