US & World

Hillary Battling To Keep White House Hopes Alive

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Hillary Clinton battled to keep her White House hopes alive Sunday as she headed into a tense nine-day stretch that could define the end game of her enthralling Democratic tussle with Barack Obama.

The former first lady seized on comments by Obama last week in which he labeled working class voters as "bitter," describing his words as "divisive" and condescending toward a large segment of US voters.

Clinton is lobbying furiously for votes in upcoming April 22 primary in the northeastern state of Pennsylvania, where she needs a big turnout by blue-collar voters to keep alive her bid to secure the Democratic nomination.

Anything less than a big win there 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.

Asked at a news conference on the campaign trail in Scranton, Pennsylvania, whether she was manipulating the Illinois senator's words for political advantage, Clinton responded: "I want to focus on what Senator Obama said.

"He is a good man and a very talented and gifted man but I think his comments were elitist and divisive and the Democratic party has been unfortunately viewed by many people over the last decade as being elitist and out of touch."

Clinton has led in Pennsylvania for months, but a Quinnipiac University poll last week had Obama surging to within six percentage points.

The pressure has 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.

The Illinois senator quickly expressed regret, telling The Winston-Salem Journal: "Obviously, if I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that.

"But the underlying truth of what I said remains, which is simply that people who have seen their way of life upended because of economic distress are frustrated and rightfully so."

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.

And the state is central to Clinton's claim that she is best-placed to win swing states in November's general election against Republican John McCain.

A key Clinton supporter, Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, noted that Obama's "bitter" remarks only reinforced the perception, however mistaken, that the Democratic party was "culturally elite."

"One of the things we have to ask ourselves is who is in the best position to win some of the swing areas? Small towns, blue collar voters, those kinds of people," he said on CNN Sunday.

But Clinton's advantages in Pennsylvania set up fierce expectations, and failure to meet them with a convincing win -- of 10 points or more -- may be seen more as a defeat than a victory.

"Perception right now is crucial to her being able to continue," said Julian Zelizer, an elections analyst and history professor at Princeton University.

Former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, co-chair of the Obama campaign, said Obama had worked in deprived communities and understood when "there's something wrong."

"So there may be some optimistic people out there... but I will tell you the vast majority of the people in this country want to see change," he said on Fox News.

A solid victory in Pennsylvania would boost Clinton going into Indiana, where she is in a dogfight with Obama, and North Carolina where he is favored, and would also help quell questions over her viability.

Obama leads Clinton by 1,641 to 1,505 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.

After six weeks of long distance sparring, Clinton and Obama will clash in a face-to-face debate in Philadelphia on Wednesday night.

(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)