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WASHINGTON: Hillary Clinton on Sunday battled to keep her White House hopes alive going into a tense 10-day stretch which could define the end game of her enthralling Democratic tussle with Barack Obama.
Anything less than a big win in the Pennsylvania primary on April 22 would severely dampen her hopes of taking the race to the end of the nominating calendar in June, in her long-odds bid to outdo Obama.
But remarks by Obama -- labelling working class voters as "bitter" -- could give Clinton the wedge she needs to pick up ground in the race, and she took off with the issue Saturday by suggesting her rival was condescending toward a large segment of US voters.
"Senator Obama's remarks are elitist and are out of touch. They are not reflective of the values and beliefs of Americans. Certainly not the Americans that I know," she said at an Indiana rally.
After six weeks of long distance sparring, Clinton and Obama will clash in a face-to-face debate in Philadelphia on Wednesday night.
Clinton, 60, trails Obama, 46, in total nominating victories, the popular vote and elected delegates going into the Pennsylvania contest, and badly needs a convincing win to quell questions about why she is still in the race.
"Perception right now is crucial to her being able to continue," said Julian Zelizer, an elections analyst and history professor at Princeton University.
"The perception that she has the right to continue, the perception that she has the possibility of winning," Zelizer said.
Clinton meanwhile must also target the still-undecided "super-delegates" -- top party officials now crucial to deciding the nomination.
Pennsylvania should be exactly the kind of state where Clinton can triumph, with its traditional blue-collar Democrats, receptive to her populist economic message as fears mount of a serious economic recession.
But those advantages set up fierce expectations for Clinton, and failure to meet them with a convincing win -- of 10 points or more -- may be seen more as a defeat than a victory.
Clinton has led in Pennsylvania for months, but a Quinnipiac University poll last week had Obama surging to within six percentage points.
"With two weeks to go, Senator Barack Obama is knocking on the door of a major political upset" in Pennsylvania, said Clay Richards at the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
Professor Tom Baldino, of Wilkes University, Pennsylvania, predicted Clinton would win the state, but said the margin of victory was critical.
"The question is, will it be by ten or more?" he said.
That made Clinton's ability to score on Obama's remarks on white, working class voters at a fundraiser in California last week crucial.
"So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations," Obama reportedly said.
Critics said he appeared to be talking down to just the kind of voter he needs to woo away from Clinton in Pennsylvania.
A solid victory there would boost her going into Indiana, where she is in a dogfight with Obama, and North Carolina where he is favoured, and would also help quell questions over her viability.
Pennsylvania is central to Clinton's claim that she is best-placed to win swing states in November's general election against Republican John McCain.
"It gives her more legitimacy to claim that she is the candidate who can really move Democratic voters to come out and you need to carry the base of the party if you are going to win in November," Baldino said.
Obama leads Clinton by 1641 to 1505 total delegates heading into Pennsylvania, according to an independent tally by RealClearPolitics.com.
Neither candidate can now win the 2,025 delegates needed to capture the nomination, so the votes of the nearly 800 superdelegates, who can vote how they like at the party convention in August, will be decisive.
Since the "Super Tuesday" nationwide contests in February, Obama, an Illinois senator has enjoyed a steady stream of superdelegate endorsements, and by most tallies has cut Clinton's advantage in that category to around 30. - AFP/ac
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