Hillary wins to fight another day

NEW YORK: Hillary Clinton added some zing to her tenacious presidential bid by defeating rival Barrack Obama in the crucial Pennsylvania polls on Tuesday night to score her fourth victory in the last five contests in the Democratic presidential race.
She held a 55 per cent majority, with about 99 per cent of the vote reported.

Some pundits said her victory was slightly short of the blowout she needed to stop Obama in his tracks. According to an analysis of election returns by the Associated Press, Clinton won at least 66 delegates to the party’s national convention, with 35 still to be awarded. Obama won 57. 

Hillary claimed victory predicting “the tide is turning” in the nomination race. “This has been a historic race and I commend Senator Obama. We are all on this journey together to create an America that embraces every last one of us. The women in their nineties who tell me they were born before women could vote and they’re hopeful of seeing a woman in the White House. The mothers and fathers at my events, who lift their little girls on their shoulders and whisper in their ears, “see, you can be anything you want,” Hillary told supporters in Philadelphia, as the crowd chanted “Yes She Can”, a takeoff on Obama’s familiar “Yes We Can” motto.

The six-week campaign waged by Obama in Pennsylvania will be remembered for many incidents. In many ways he created his own funeral in the run-up to the vote by telling a group of donors that those living in Pennsylvania’s economically depressed small communities cling to guns or religion. He later engaged in furious back pedalling but the damage was done. 

Voters who own a gun and attend religious services went for Hillary by double digits. “Hillary received 60 per cent among those who own a gun or have a gun in their household; the New York senator carried a 12 point margin among those voters who attend religious service weekly and a slightly more narrow seven-point edge among those who occasionally go to some form of religious services,” said the Washington Post.

Political analysts said Hillary carried well over 60 per cent of white working-class voters, a crucial swing bloc for election. On the other hand, Obama carried the black vote by a massive 92 per cent.

Obama still has a strong financial advantage, with his campaign possessing $42 million in the beginning of April, and spending twice as much on ads in North Carolina and Indiana, two states with upcoming primaries on May 6. But Geoff Garin, Hillary’s new chief strategist, was quick to point out that Clinton’s campaign received $2.5 million in contributions over the Internet on Tuesday night after she won Pennsylvania, making it her best fund-raising night yet.

Thanks to Tuesday’s victory Hillary will cut into Obama’s delegate lead but it could well be erased if he wins big in North Carolina on May 6, as expected.