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Clinton ready for day of reckoning

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

2:07 PM EST, March 4, 2008

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HOUSTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton steeled herself for a day of political reckoning as voters headed to the polls Tuesday in Ohio and Texas, showdown states where Clinton hopes to resuscitate her once high-flying candidacy and rival Barack Obama hopes to score a knockout punch.

But it wasn't at all clear Tuesday that even a Clinton loss in Ohio or Texas would prompt her exit from the race, as Clinton has been sending strong signals that she's not ready to give up her quest to become the nation's first woman president.

"I'm just getting warmed up," Clinton told reporters Monday.

Obama's camp has been stepping up its case that even narrow wins for Clinton Tuesday night might not be enough to vault her ahead in the all-important delegate hunt, where Obama is well short of the 2,025 delegates needed but still about 100 ahead of Clinton.

"We know this has been an extraordinary election. It continues to be. We're working hard to do as well as we can," said Obama, himself a history-making contender who hopes to become the nation's first African-American president. He planned to await Texas returns in San Antonio.

Obama began the day with a stop at a livestock show in Houston, where he shook hands with people at a Future Farmers of America exhibit and viewed show cows and bulls.

Clinton opened Election Day in Houston and Dallas, but then was heading back to Ohio for more campaign events. She will await results in Columbus before returning to Washington Tuesday night.

Polls were tight in both states, though Clinton appears to have the edge in Ohio making Texas the race to watch Tuesday night. Texas offers 228 delegates, Ohio 164. Voters also are going to the polls Tuesday in Rhode Island, which offers 21 delegates, and Vermont, 15.

When asked Monday to define success, Clinton kept it vague: "Winning. Winning. Winning, that's my measure of success -- winning." She wouldn't say if that meant winning states or a majority of delegates.

Last month, Bill Clinton told an audience in Texas his wife needed to win both big March 4 states to have a chance of catching Obama. But Hillary Clinton struck a very different tone when asked Monday if she would bow out following a loss in either state.

"I believe we are going to do well tomorrow and I believe that's going to send a very significant message to the country," she said. "Then we move on to Pennsylvania and the states still ahead," she said referring to the Keystone State's April 22 primary.

Party leaders, including New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who has stayed neutral since exiting the race in January, have pressured Clinton to accept Tuesday's results as a decisive outcome. One of Clinton's superdelegates, Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, seemed to adopt a similar position when he spoke to a Providence radio station yesterday.

"We can't go all the way through to the convention fighting with each other while McCain and the Republicans lob in whatever free shots they want," he said. "Let's see how Tuesday plays out, and then let's start thinking about how we're going to get behind a candidate."

But Obama comes into Tuesday's contests after one of his toughest days on the campaign trail yet, when he was barraged by reporters' questions over his ties to real-estate developer Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who went on trial in Chicago Monday charged with federal corruption.

Obama has made honesty and transparency a cornerstone of his campaign to change "politics as usual" in Washington. But he prompted angry cries from reporters when he insisted he had shared all "pertinent" information on his links with Rezko and complained that media requests "can go on forever." Among other dealings, Obama in 2006 bought a strip of land from Rezko to expand his yard.

There are no allegations of illegality in Obama's land purchase from Rezko, which he repeated Monday was "boneheaded."

Obama also faced questions about whether one of his top advisers privately assured Canadian officials that Obama's tough talk against the North American Free Trade Agreement on the campaign trail in Ohio was just "political posturing."

Much of the criticism was initiated by Clinton, who said Obama's camp gave "the old wink-wink" to reassure Canadian officials that Obama wouldn't seek to dismantle NAFTA. But the questions assumed a life of their own as Obama struggled to explain why a Canadian government memo quoted one of his aides as saying Obama's opposition to NAFTA was for political show.

Letta Tayler and The Associated Press contributed.