Clinton Declares Indiana Victory
Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged to keep going full throttle for the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday after losing North Carolina and facing a strong challenge from Barack Obama in Indiana.
With thousands of votes yet to be counted in Indiana, Clinton claimed victory there and pronounced it the tiebreaker in her favor.
"Tonight, we've come from behind. We've broken the tie, and thanks to you, it's full speed on to the White House," Clinton told hundreds of supporters in downtown Indianapolis. Former President Clinton and daughter Chelsea were by her side.
Underscoring the difficulty of her effort to block Obama from claiming the Democratic nomination, Clinton also made a direct fundraising appeal to backers to help her compete against his better-financed operation.
"I need your help to continue our journey," Clinton said. "This has always been your campaign, and this is your victory because your support has meant the difference between winning and losing."
"I hope you will go to HillaryClinton.com and support our campaign," she added.
Clinton spoke before it was certain that she had won Indiana. Clinton led narrowly in the state, and Obama said it appeared Clinton had won there. But thousands of votes had yet to be counted, principally in Lake County, a heavily black area not far from Obama's home city of Chicago.
Clinton noted the back-and-forth nature of the protracted fight: "I win, he wins. I win, he wins. It's so close."
Then, in what was perhaps a nod to her uphill struggle to overcome Obama's delegate lead, she pledged anew that she'll swing behind the Democratic nominee "no matter what happens."
She pledged to press on for the nomination, saying: "These next primaries are another test. I will work my heart out in West Virginia and Kentucky. I intend to win them in November."
Clinton hoped an Indiana victory would give her fresh talking points as she works to convince voters yet to cast their ballots and undecided superdelegates -- elected Democratic officials -- to side with her in the punishingly long nomination fight.
The New York senator was heading back to Washington late Tuesday. Her only public appearance Wednesday was an evening fundraiser. She planned to return to the campaign trail Thursday with events in at least one of the remaining states to vote.
Once the Democratic front-runner, Clinton sustained a series of losses to Obama early in the year and in the months since has been slowly clawing her way back into the thick of the race.
Over the past two months, she scored a couple of big-state wins as Obama faltered amid the controversy surrounding his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and Obama's own comment that people from small towns cling to guns and religion because they are bitter.
Seeking to take advantage of that opportunity, Clinton retooled her campaign to focus on producing results for an anxious middle class and started aggressively courting white, working-class voters at a time of economic anxiety. With that strategy, she triumphed last month in Pennsylvania and kept her candidacy alive.
She used the same bread-and-butter message in Indiana and North Carolina, and the final days of those primaries were dominated by Clinton's call for a summertime suspension of the federal gasoline tax.
Despite her progress, the math in the race to rack up the 2,025 delegates needed to clinch the nomination still favors Obama; he leads Clinton in delegates won in primaries and caucuses, and has steadily whittled away at Clinton's advantage in superdelegates over the past two weeks.
It will be difficult -- if not impossible -- for Clinton to overtake him even if she manages to win a chunk of the states left to vote and convinces many of the unaligned superdelegate to break her way.
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First Posted: 05- 6-08 11:15 PM | Updated: 05-14-08 05:12 AM