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Clinton Loses Last Best Chance for an Obama Upset
By Nedra Pickler
The Associated Press
Tuesday 06 May 2008
Washington DC - Hillary Rodham Clinton lost her last best chance to score an
upset on Barack Obama's turf Tuesday, putting the Illinois senator a step closer
to becoming the country's first black presidential nominee.
Obama was the long-standing favorite in North Carolina, and he won with the
overwhelming support of black voters there despite an intense effort by Clinton
to turn the state around.
Obama's victory there was tempered by the fact that Clinton beat him handily
among white voters, extending her argument to superdelegates who will decide
the nomination that she will be the stronger general-election candidate.
So far, she's been losing that argument.
Even as Obama has been struggling with the fallout over his former pastor's
racially divisive remarks, even though Clinton is coming off a big win in Pennsylvania,
he's still winning more superdelegates. Since the Pennsylvania primary two weeks
ago, Clinton has picked up 11.5 superdelegate endorsements to Obama's 22, according
to an Associated Press count.
A win for Clinton in Indiana, the other state that voted Tuesday, wouldn't
turn the race around for her like a surprise victory in North Carolina would
have.
Obama's win in North Carolina helps stop a slide for him that began two months
ago when Clinton won primaries in Ohio and Texas. He got victories in the Texas
and Wyoming caucuses and the Mississippi primary, but soon found himself the
target of unflattering media coverage spurred by video of his former pastor's
divisive sermons.
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright has suggested the United States spread terrorism and
possibly the HIV virus to kill blacks. Obama at first distanced himself from
the comments while embracing the man, but eventually denounced the pastor completely.
Undecided superdelegate Muriel Offerman, of Cary, N.C., said she wondered if
the controversy could have cost Obama her state.
"This week I wasn't sure how this was going to shake out because of the
Jeremiah Wright thing and because President Clinton had been here so much,"
she said in a telephone interview from her home, where she was watching coverage
of Obama's victory on television. Former President Bill Clinton visited small
towns across North Carolina in support of his wife, including nine stops on
the eve of the election.
"People want change and I think North Carolina is like some of the other
states, that it's just time for a change," Offerman said. But she said
Obama's racially lopsided victory "is certainly a concern. And I think
we all have our work cut out for us."
Eighteen percent of North Carolina voters casting ballots said race was important
in deciding their vote, according to exit polls conducted for The Associated
Press and the television networks. Nearly a quarter of black voters said race
was important, and 93 percent of those respondents voted for Obama. Fourteen
percent of white voters said race was important, and 60 percent of them went
for Clinton.
Offerman said she hopes the candidates will follow through on their promises
to support the eventually nominee. She said they will need each other to bring
the party together after the racially divisive primary.
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