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Obama's North Carolina win a blow to Clinton

BY GLENN THRUSH and CRAIG GORDON | glenn.thrush@newsday.com
craig.gordon@newsday.com

11:34 PM EDT, May 6, 2008

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INDIANAPOLIS - Barack Obama scored a resounding win in North Carolina while Hillary Rodham Clinton clung to a narrow lead in Indiana Tuesday night -- delivering a major blow to Clinton's White House hopes and ushering a scramble for undecided superdelegates.

Expectations were high in Clinton's camp after she closed a double-digit gap over the past two weeks in North Carolina following the controversy over Obama's firebrand former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. But Obama cruised to a 57 percent to 43 percent win Tuesday night on the strength of 91 percent support among blacks, with nearly all precincts reporting.

In Indiana, Clinton was clinging to a 52 percent to 48 percent margin over Obama, with 86 percent of the vote counted. She vowed to press ahead in her quest for the nomination.

"My opponent made a prediction ... that Indiana would be the tie breaker," Clinton told supporters here late Tuesday night, flanked by Bill Clinton and their daughter, Chelsea. "Tonight we came from behind, we have broken the tie. ... This is your campaign, this is your victory."

The big North Carolina loss -- coupled with her Indiana squeaker -- seriously narrows Clinton's already pinched path to the nomination. With only six contests to be decided over the next month, Clinton trails Obama 1,800.5 to 1,654 in total delegates, according to The Associated Press.

But Tuesday night's results make it virtually impossible for Clinton to catch Obama in pledged delegates -- and it seriously compromised her argument to unpledged superdelegates that she is more electable.

"It's got to be disappointing," said Jennifer Duffy, an analyst with the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. "They anticipated a much bigger win in Indiana than they're getting. ... I don't think it moves the ball forward for her at all."

Obama's strong showing -- following two stumbling weeks that saw him lose further ground with working-class whites -- seems to give him a decided edge with the 268 remaining uncommitted superdelegates.

Also, Clinton advisers acknowledged that her campaign was short on cash, refusing to say if the Clintons have had to lend the campaign more money following a $5 million loan in January. And they said that yesterday's results would make it harder for them to tap new donors.

For Democrats, the results paint a dispiriting picture of division and demographic stalemate, with Obama's win powered by 90-plus-percent wins among blacks -- and Clinton's strength remaining her two-to-one advantage among white, working-class voters.

And some Clinton allies still worry Obama hasn't proved he can win the white working-class voters who make up the party's core -- and are key to winning battleground states like Ohio and Missouri.

"We cannot win with eggheads and African-Americans," strategist Paul Begala said last night on CNN. He said that's the coalition Michael Dukakis had in 1988 -- and won only 10 states.

In North Carolina, Obama, who seemed buoyed after an exhausting two-state campaign, mocked Clinton's assertion last week that the Tarheel State might be a "game-changer" during last night's victory speech in Raleigh.

"You know, some were saying that North Carolina would be a game-changer in this election," the Illinois senator said. "But today, what North Carolina decided is that the only game that needs changing is the one in Washington, D.C."

The Indiana results were slow in coming as election officials in the Obama stronghold of Gary opted to count absentee ballots along with votes cast yesterday, infuriating some Clinton backers.

Clinton's surrogates claimed a win at 10:30 p.m., with Sen. Evan Bayh declaring, "What a victory it is!"

Obama's staff didn't immediately concede defeat here, but he told his supporters that the former first lady had won "an apparent victory."

Clinton's shell-shocked staff, which had anticipated a relatively drama-free night, wandered worriedly around the halls of the Murat Center in Indianapolis as Obama whittled down a lead that dwindled from double digits to a virtual tie. Senior Clinton advisers had conceded she could exit the race if she lost both states.