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Obama Wins North Carolina Decisively; Clinton Takes Indiana by Slim Margin
By Jeff Zeleny
The New York Times
Wednesday 07 May 2008
Senator Barack Obama won a commanding victory in the North Carolina primary
on Tuesday and lost narrowly to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in Indiana, an
outcome that injected a boost of momentum to Mr. Obama's candidacy as
the Democratic nominating contest entered its final month.
The results from the two primaries, the largest remaining Democratic ones,
assured that Mr. Obama would widen his lead in pledged delegates over Mrs. Clinton,
providing him with new ammunition as he seeks to persuade Democratic leaders
to coalesce around his campaign. He also increased his lead in the popular vote
in winning North Carolina by more than 200,000 votes.
"Don't ever forget that we have a choice in this country,"
Mr. Obama said in an address in Raleigh, N.C., that carried the unity themes
of a convention speech. "We can choose not to be divided; that we can
choose not to be afraid; that we can still choose this moment to finally come
together and solve the problems we've talked about all those other years
in all those other elections."
In winning North Carolina by 14 percentage points, Mr. Obama - whose
campaign had been embattled by controversy over the incendiary remarks of his
former pastor - recorded his first primary victory in nearly two months.
His campaign was preparing to open a new front in his battle with Mrs. Clinton,
intensifying the argument to uncommitted Democratic superdelegates that he weathered
a storm and that the time was dawning for the party to concentrate on the general
election.
But as Mrs. Clinton addressed her supporters at a rally in Indianapolis on
Tuesday evening, it was clear the fight was not over. In the first three minutes
of her address, she asked supporters to contribute money, saying, "Tonight,
I need your help to continue this journey."
Clinton advisers acknowledged that the results of the primaries were far less
than they had hoped, and said they were likely to face new pleas even from some
of their own supporters for her to quit the race. They said they expected fund-raising
to become even harder; one adviser said the campaign was essentially broke,
and several others refused to say whether Mrs. Clinton had lent the campaign
money from her personal account to keep it afloat.
The advisers said they were dispirited over the loss in North Carolina, after
her campaign - now working off a shoestring budget as spending outpaces
fund-raising - decided to allocate millions of dollars and full days
of the candidate and her husband in the state. Even with her investment, Mr.
Obama outspent Mrs. Clinton in both states.
For several hours, incomplete results from Lake County in Indiana -
home to the city of Gary, just across the state line from Chicago - left
the statewide tally in doubt. The delay meant that Mrs. Clinton did not appear
on television until well after Mr. Obama, allowing him to put his stamp of victory
on the evening.
With six primaries remaining on the Democratic calendar, the fight between
Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton now turns to Washington. The Obama campaign was poised
to present a new cache of superdelegates - the party officials who may
have to settle the nominating fight - as early as Wednesday to press
its case that the results from Tuesday are reason enough to back his candidacy
and end the torturous nominating fight.
In his speech earlier in the evening, Mr. Obama, of Illinois, congratulated
Mrs. Clinton "for what appears to be her victory in the great state of
Indiana." Then, he used his televised forum to deliver a speech highlighting
how he was likely to come under attack. In doing so, he made an argument for
his viability in a general election, which his rivals believe has been damaged
because of his association with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright
Jr..
"Yes, we know what's coming; I'm not naive,"
Mr. Obama said, adding, "The attempts to play on our fears and exploit
our differences, to turn us against each other for political gain, to slice
and dice this country into red states and blue states; blue-collar and white-collar;
white, black, brown; young, old; rich, poor."
"This is the race we expect" regardless of who is the Democratic
nominee, he went on. "The question, then, is not what kind of campaign
they will run; it's what kind of campaign we will run."
Democrats said they expect to see more superdelegates flow to Mr. Obama in
the next few days, including perhaps some now aligned with Mrs. Clinton.
Senator Claire McCaskill, an Obama supporter from Missouri, called the results
"a big, big night" for Mr. Obama given the Wright episode. "This
shows he can take major blows and kind of rise above it," Ms. McCaskill
said. "I think there was a sense that she has some momentum, and I think
it has just ground to a screeching halt tonight."
Despite Mrs. Clinton's performance, she pledged to take her campaign
to West Virginia, Kentucky and the other states remaining on the primary calendar.
And the campaign has been pushing the cause of seating disputed delegates from
Florida and Michigan, states that were penalized for holding primaries before
party rules allowed.
"You know it seems, it would be a little strange to have a nominee chosen
by 48 states," she told her supporters in Indianapolis. "We've
got a long road ahead, but were going to keep fighting on that path because
America is worth fighting for."
The Rules and Bylaws Committee of the Democratic National Committee will convene
on May 31 to settle the issue of whether to seat the delegates from those two
states.
Going forward, both candidates intend to spend time in Washington, courting
superdelegates and party officials.
Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, an Obama supporter, said the candidate accomplished
what he needed to by outperforming expectations in both states and showing that
Mr. Wright was not driving off voters en masse. "The next question will
be what happens with the undecided superdelegates," Mr. Nelson said.
"Will they begin to come his way? I don't see anything to suggest
they should start going her way."
In North Carolina, Mr. Obama's performance was bolstered by a strong
black vote. He captured more than 90 percent of those voters in that state,
where blacks accounted for one in three voters. But over all, Mrs. Clinton continued
to draw strong support among whites, particularly older women.
The voting in Indiana and North Carolina came at the conclusion of an acrimonious
two-week campaign that found Mr. Obama on the defensive over incendiary remarks
by Mr. Wright. Yet there was little evidence either argument caused significant
shifts in electoral patterns of previous states, with most Clinton voters saying
the Wright episode affected their vote and Obama backers saying it had not.
Once again, Mrs. Clinton drew most of her support from women and older voters.
Mr. Obama held onto his mainstays of support - blacks, young voters and
liberals - and made small gains in Indiana with lower-income white voters
who have eluded him in the past.
In both states, the candidates' final arguments centered on a summertime
suspension of the federal gasoline tax, which Mrs. Clinton proposed as an economic
lift for voters and Mr. Obama derided as a political gimmick.
At this stage in the nominating fight, most voters seemed to have settled on
their preferences before the battle intensified. Only a quarter of voters in
Indiana decided whom to support in the last week, and a majority backed Mrs.
Clinton, while one in five voters in North Carolina also decided late, and most
of them backed Mr. Obama.
The country's economic condition was listed as the chief concern of
the Democratic primary voters. About 9 in 10 voters in Indiana and 8 in 10 voters
in North Carolina said the economic slowdown had affected their family at least
somewhat.
At least three in five voters in both states said the economy was the most
important problem facing the country, according to surveys of voters leaving
polling places that were conducted in both states by Edison/Mitofsky for the
television networks and The Associated Press.
In Indiana, about 8 in 10 voters were white and about 15 percent were black.
Six in 10 of the whites voted for Mrs. Clinton; about 9 in 10 blacks favored
Mr. Obama.
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Reporting was contributed by Patrick Healy, Carl Hulse, Dalia Sussman
and Megan Thee.
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