Barack Obama and
Hillary Rodham Clinton once again faced off in crucial
primaries as voters in Indiana and North Carolina crowded
polls Tuesday seeking to settle the largest remaining
contests in an epic Democratic presidential nomination
struggle.
Obama was looking
to shore up his position as the front-runner, while
Clinton was seeking another victory to keep her candidacy
competitive in a race that is likely to continue into
June and perhaps to the Democratic National Convention
in August.
Obama began the
day by dropping in on the Four Seasons Family Restaurant
in Greenwood, Ind., a suburb of Indianapolis. He walked
around shaking hands, then sat at the counter and had
an omelet, chatting with patrons on either side.
''I feel good,''
Obama said when asked about the day's voting. ''I think
we've campaigned hard. I think it's going to be close. I'm
seeing a lot of enthusiasm.''
Clinton was more
reticent.
''We're just, you
know, looking to see what happens,'' Clinton told
reporters on her campaign plane late Monday. ''Obviously we
hope to do as well as we can.''
''We started out
pretty far behind with some tough odds ... I never feel
confident. I just try to do the best I can. You know, I
don't make predictions because it's very
unpredictable. And this has been, I think anyone would
agree, a pretty unpredictable campaign season.''
In Indiana,
Marion County clerk Beth White said many voters already were
in line when polls opened at 6 a.m. Tuesday.
''We really do
feel today is going to be a heavy voting day, and our
inspectors are ready,'' said White, clerk of Indiana's most
populous county.
Even before the
opening of polls at 6:30 a.m. in North Carolina, there
were signs of record turnout. Nearly half a million people
had already cast early and absentee ballots as of
Monday -- more than half the total number of voters
who cast a ballot during the 2004 primary.
''I can't
remember a primary that had this much excitement,'' said
Gary Bartlett, director of the North Carolina Board of
Elections. ''It's truly fun to be part of making
history, and I hope that this encourages voters to
participate in all primary elections.''
Obama, who was
flying later to North Carolina to await election results
in Raleigh, visited a polling place Tuesday morning at
Hinkle Field House on the campus of Butler University
in Indianapolis, the site of part of the filming of
the basketball movie Hoosiers. Obama, who chatted
with voters, said he had hoped to shoot a few baskets
while there, but that the nets were up because of an
upcoming commencement.
''I might have to
take one shot,'' Obama said, although he left without
doing so.
Like marathoners
on their second wind, Obama and Clinton had raced for
advantage until the final hours of the campaign for the
primaries in the two states.
Clinton, at her
scrappiest when her campaign is on the line -- which it
has been for weeks -- brought a full-throated roar to a
series of events Monday in a day of frantic travel
spilling into the wee hours Tuesday.
A wealthy
inside-Washington veteran, the former first lady worked hard
to make common cause with blue-collar voters crucial
to Tuesday's outcome.
''I do see you, I
do hear you,'' she told supporters in Merrillville,
Ind., speaking at a local fire station as a dozen
firefighters looked down on her from the fire truck
behind her.
She pressed her
proposal for a federal gas tax holiday that Obama has
dismissed as a gimmick, one of the few issues where the two
Democrats clearly diverge.
''It's a stunt,''
the Illinois senator said in Evansville. ''It's what
Washington does.''
Obama's stance
was backed up by 230 economists who released a letter
Monday opposing the temporary tax break, which would take
18.4 cents off the price of a gallon if consumers got
the full savings at the pump. The signers included
four Nobel Prize winners and economic advisers to
presidents of both parties.
Clinton shrugged
off the blistering reviews from policy makers, industry
experts, and editorial writers.
''I believe we
should start standing up for the majority of Americans who
are paying the outrageous gas prices,'' Clinton said. ''I'm
ready to take on the oil companies.''
Obama hurtled
from Indiana to North Carolina and back.
''I want your
vote. I want it badly,'' he pleaded on a factory floor in
Durham, N.C., one of many settings drawing the working-class
voters he needs.
Obama capped his
day with a rain-soaked, get-out-the-vote rally in
Indianapolis featuring Motown legend Stevie Wonder, followed
by a visit to a factory for the midnight shift change.
Dual victories by
Obama would all but knock Clinton out of the race.
Polls, however, have found a small edge for the New York
senator in Indiana. Obama remains the favorite in
North Carolina, though his lead has shrunk.
Altogether, 187
delegates are at stake in the two states, nearly half the
pledged delegates left with eight primaries to go before
voting ends in a month.
North Carolina
and Indiana cannot mathematically settle the nomination. A
candidate needs 2,025 delegates to win, and Obama had
1,745.5 to Clinton's 1,608 Monday.
The key to the
nomination is held by superdelegates, party leaders who
aren't bound by the outcome of state contests. About 220 are
still undecided.
Despite a rash of
recent troubles and his loss to Clinton in the big
Pennsylvania primary two weeks ago, Obama has continued to
nibble away at Clinton's lead in superdelegates. He
picked up two from Maryland on Monday, leaving him
trailing Clinton 269-255.
Clinton's main
hope is to persuade most of the still-neutral
superdelegates to disregard his lead in the delegate chase
and support her instead. Her campaign also hopes to
get a boost by getting delegates from Michigan and
Florida seated.
Obama easily
outspent Clinton in both states while outside supporters
threw big money into the contest too.
The Service
Employees International Union, which is backing Obama, spent
about $1.1 million in the state, much of it on ads. The
American Leadership Project, which has received most
of its money from labor groups backing Clinton, spent
more than $1 million on ads in Indiana that questioned
Obama's economic policies. (Liz Sidoti, AP)
