Democratic
presidential candidate Barack Obama battled to refocus his
campaign on the five-year-old Iraq war and the slumping U.S.
economy, ending a week that saw him clobbered over
incendiary remarks by his longtime Chicago pastor.
Sen. Hillary
Rodham Clinton, his rival for the Democratic nomination,
blasted away on the war and economy as well, while pressing
demands to reinstate delegates in Michigan and
Florida.
Clinton won both
contests, but the national Democratic Party said they
would not be counted because the state votes were held too
early and violated party rules.
With Republicans
suffering under the unpopularity of President George
Bush because of the war and the economy, the Democratic
Party could have been poised to easily capture the
White House in the November.
But the bruising
nomination fight between Clinton and Obama threatens
Democratic unity in the historic race, which could place the
first woman or the first African-American in the U.S.
presidency.
What might have
been a clear shot at victory has been encumbered by
political bickering between the Obama and Clinton camps, the
need for heavy campaign spending, and the candidates'
need to focus on each other rather than Sen. John
McCain, the Arizona senator who is Republican
nominee-in-waiting.
It was a
particularly troubling week for Obama. National polling
showed his fortunes slipping dramatically in the
aftermath of the remarks by the Reverend Jeremiah
Wright.
Last week, the
Gallup poll had Obama leading Clinton 50% to 44% in a
survey conducted March 11-13, but this week that changed.
Gallup now shows Clinton ahead of Obama 48% to 43%,
according to voters questioned from March 17-19.
Portions of
Wright sermons blamed the United States for bringing the
September 11, 2001, attacks on itself and declared that God
should damn America for racial bigotry.
In a week that
marked the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, both Clinton
and Obama gave major speeches restating their plans to end
the conflict quickly. And both also sought to link the
slumping economy to the hundreds of billions of
dollars spent on the war.
McCain,
meanwhile, visited Iraq and said he found significant
progress since the Bush administration ordered
additional troops into the country, but warned that
al-Qaida in Iraq -- while on the run -- remained a
dangerous force.
In West Virginia
on Thursday, Obama delivered what he billed as a major
address on Iraq, declaring that vast spending to sustain the
American military effort was responsible for American
economic woes.
''When you're
spending over $50 to fill up your car because the price of
oil is four times what it was before Iraq, you're paying a
price for this war,'' Obama said. ''When Iraq is
costing each household about $100 a month, you're
paying a price for this war.''
By linking the
economy to the war, Obama was playing to his perceived
strength as someone who spoke out against the war as a state
lawmaker in Illinois. He has criticized Clinton for
only recently opposing the war and said Thursday that
her criticism of McCain's war policies lacked teeth.
''Her point would
have been more compelling had she not joined Senator
McCain in making the tragically ill-considered decision to
vote for the Iraq war in the first place,'' Obama said
to cheers.
Clinton was in
both Indiana and West Virginia on Thursday, states that
hold primary votes May 6 and May 13, respectively.
In Michigan, the
drive for a second primary collapsed, prompting a fresh
dispute between Obama and Clinton over the fate of the
state's 128 national convention delegates.
Obama's campaign
said a fair resolution would be to split them evenly
with Clinton. Aides to the former first lady instantly
rejected the idea and said they would consider a
mail-in primary -- even though Obama has raised
concerns about the security of a vote by mail organized so
quickly.
Clinton has been
leading the effort to hold a revote in Michigan, eager
for a chance to close the gap on her rival.
Speaking to
reporters while campaigning in Terre Haute, Ind., Clinton
said Obama's nomination could be tainted if he achieves it
without a second Michigan contest.
''I do not see
how two of our largest and most significant states can be
disenfranchised and left out of the process of picking our
nominee without raising serious questions about the
legitimacy of that nominee,'' Clinton said of Michigan
and Florida.
Florida also had
its 210 delegates stripped for voting in January. A
proposal for a mail-in vote in the state fell apart earlier
this month without support from the party's
congressional delegation.
Obama leads
Clinton among delegates whose votes were determined by
primaries or caucuses, 1,406 to 1,249. But neither is on
track to win enough pledged delegates in primaries and
caucuses to clinch the nomination -- 2,024 are needed
-- so the outcome could be decided by superdelegates,
elected and party officials who can choose whomever they
like.
Clinton leads
among superdelegates who have announced a choice, 250-213.
About 40% of the superdelegates have not declared, including
10 Democratic governors.
Halfway across
the world, McCain said that Americans were increasingly
backing the U.S. troop ''surge'' strategy in Iraq and
believed the tactic was bringing success.
''That will be,
frankly, a very big issue for the country, whether we
withdraw and have al-Qaida win and announce to the world
they have won and have things collapse there, or
whether we see this strategy through to success,''
McCain told reporters in London, after meeting with British
prime minister Gordon Brown.
Brown has said he
hopes to cut British forces, based near the southern
city of Basra, from 4,000 to about 2,500 in coming months.
McCain has said repeatedly that pulling out of Iraq
quickly would be a mistake that would boost Iran and
al-Qaida.
He told reporters
in London, however, that his warnings about the dangers
of a precipitate withdrawal from Iraq were about U.S. forces
only. Britain's decision ''is made by the British
government and people,'' he said. (Steven Hurst, AP)
