With slumping poll numbers, Senator Hillary Clinton has a last chance in a one-on-one debate tonight to slow Senator Barack Obama's roaring momentum before two pivotal nominating clashes next week. The former front-runner, her hopes hanging by a thread ahead of must-win contests in Ohio and Texas on March 4, hopes to halt an Obama surge which has seen the Illinois senator snap up 11 straight electoral victories. The streak has seen Clinton's campaign contemplating the possibility of defeat.
Senator Obama, carving out wide leads in national Democratic polls, landed another morale-sapping blow to the Clinton campaign, capturing the endorsement of former party White House hopeful Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd. Dodd said either Clinton or Obama would make a good commander in chief, but said he believed the Illinois senator could be a unifying force. "He has drawn millions of voters into politics for the first time in their lives and shown us that we are united by so much more than that which divides us. More than ever, we need a President who will inspire us to take part in the political process and change our country's path," he said in a message to supporters. He denied that it was a nudge to Senator Clinton to give up.
Both candidates headed into the televised debate in Cleveland as new polls suggesting Clinton's support was collapsing and amid striking newspaper stories of internal conflict damaging her campaign. A CBS News/New York Times survey gave Obama a 54 percent to 38 percent lead among Democrats nationwide. A USA Today poll had him up 51 percent to 39 percent nationally among Democratic voters. There were fresh signs of Clinton's campaign woes, including an AP-Ipsos poll that charted significant gains for Obama among male voters and others two months into the primary season. In mid-January, Clinton held a seven-point lead among all men, a group she now loses by 25 points. The two were about even among college graduates six weeks ago, and Obama now holds a 20-point margin. The former first lady's most reliable base of support continues to be older voters, women, and lower-income workers.
Yesterday polls in Texas showed Senator Obama leading in Texas for the first time, and today there was more alarming news for Senator Clinton, as a Rasmussen Reports survey Tuesday showed Obama cut her lead among Ohio Democrats to just five points, as she led 48 percent to 43 percent. Last week, Obama had 40 percent, and the week before 38 percent. Clinton needs blowout wins in Ohio and Texas to erase Obama's lead in the delegate hunt. The RealClearPolitics website put Senator Obama in the driving seat with 1,374 delegates to Senator Clinton's 1,275. A total of 436 Democratic delegates are in play in next Tuesday's primaries in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont.
The debate takes place a day after a photograph emerged of Obama dressed in a wraparound robe and turban, presented to him by elders in Wajir, in northeastern Kenya, a reminder of his African heritage in a campaign where the issues of race and religion have always lurked in the background. The gossip and news Web site The Drudge Report posted the photograph Monday and said it was being circulated by "Clinton staffers." Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe accused the Clinton team of "shameful, offensive fear-mongering," but Clinton angrily denied that her aides had passed the photo on to the Drudge Report website. Obama said he expected the debate to be conducted in a "civil fashion" but knows Clinton may try to snare him with the same searing tone seen in her recent barrage of attacks on his presidential credentials.
Obama has won 11 straight primaries and caucuses, and even some of Clinton's supporters concede she must win in both Ohio and Texas next week to keep her candidacy alive.
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