Quintessential Clinton

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Hillary Clinton

IN FAMILY tradition, Hillary defied what looked like the inevitable and squeaked through to victory in Ohio and Texas primaries, leaving Barack Obama to clean up in Vermont. Obama won the latter comfortably with 60 per cent, and even appears to have edged out Clinton in the Texas caucus vote, which accounts for one third of delegates, leaving his lead over Clinton undaunted.

In Vermont, the war in Iraq proved key for him: seven of 10 voters who thought the Iraq war was the most important issue facing the country voted for Obama. Four out of 10 said it was the key issue.

Clinton's successes, though, are due to negative campaigning, impugning Obama as inexperienced in foreign affairs, despite her own disastrous experience in that area; notably, her support for President George W Bush's decision to invade Iraq. More troubling yet are the hundreds of Republicans who switched sides in Ohio to vote for her. "I voted for Hillary," said Republican Eric Klieber, 56, of Cleveland Heights. "John McCain has a better chance of beating her than Barack Obama," as indeed national opinion polls strongly suggest. Another bad sign for Clinton is that she emerged from this defining moment with a campaign mired in debt and riven by dissent.

The hard-fought duel now moves to North Carolina, Wyoming, Oregon and Mississippi, where Obama is still the favourite. But Clinton hopes to make another stand in April in Pennsylvania, a large state that like Ohio is home to many poor blue-collar workers and older voters, who still favour her.

Despite Clinton's willingness to fight dirty, Obama refuses to be dragged into mud-slinging, which is no doubt tempting, considering the amount of baggage his opponent has, and which Senator John McCain is just waiting to begin. "I'm not gonna do things that I'm not comfortable doing and I want to make sure that we stay focussed on the issues," he told reporters. To avoid a bruising fight to the finish at the Democratic convention in August, some Democrats are already looking to Al Gore as a possible mediator, considering the other possibility -- Bill Clinton -- is hardly neutral.