Clinton Takes Fight to Indiana, Looks to Build Off Pennsylvania Win

FOXNews.com

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Energized -- but still the underdog.

That's where Hillary Clinton finds herself Wednesday as she heads to Indiana following a decisive but expected victory over Democratic rival Barack Obama in Pennsylvania the night before.

As a sign of how much energy her 10-point win might provide, the Clinton campaign announced raising $2.5 million in the hours after the polls closed Tuesday.

Clinton and Obama are back on the road in Indiana Wednesday as they use the next stop in a marathon primary season to prove they have the stuff to be their party's next presidential nominee.

While Clinton was looking to give her flagging campaign a new lease on life, Obama must prove, as his campaign puts it, that the "dynamic of this lengthy primary" has not changed as a result of Tuesday night's loss.

Clinton will make up little ground in the delegate count, but could give superdelegates the opening they need to conclude that she has the stamina to take out presumptive GOP nominee John McCain in big states needed to win the general election.

"It was a great victory because we had record turnout," Clinton told FOX News Wednesday morning. "People were obviously excited across the state of Pennsylvania. I'm so grateful to have such an overwhelming victory."

Indiana and North Carolina are the next states to hold primaries May 6, and like Pennsylvania, they provide an opportunity to tilt the delegate count.

"People really want me to continue and go on to these next states because they think I would be the best president" Clinton said.

Indiana and North Carolina offer 72 and 115 delegates, respectively. Obama leads by 15.5 points in North Carolina in a RealClearPolitics average of polls. Clinton leads by 2.2 points in an RCP average of Indiana surveys.

"Now it's up to you, Indiana," Obama told supporters at a rally Tuesday night in Evansville, Ind. The speech took alternating shots at McCain and the culture of Washington politics in general.

While Obama maintains a 130-delegate lead in the nominating contest, neither candidate can pick up enough pledged delegates from the the remaining nine contests to secure the nomination. The Associated Press delegate counts showed Obama with 1,705 and Clinton with 1,575 as of Tuesday night. A candidate needs 2,025 to win.

Clinton took a slap at the Democrats' superdelegate system Wednesday.

"If we had the same system as the Republicans I'd already be the nominee," Clinton said. "And if the Republicans had our system they'd still be duking it out."

The Obama campaign had tried to lower expectations before Tuesday's Pennsylvania loss, with the candidate saying he didn't expect to win. Obama strategist David Axelrod said after the results were out that the campaign got what it had anticipated.

"Our goal was to cut the lead down and we have done that ... we cut the lead more than half," he said. Traveling to Indiana, Axelrod and Obama spokesman Rob Gibbs wore t-shirts over the dress shirts that read "No Drama, Vote for Obama."

But the double-digit victory gave Clinton the momentum to claim the "tide is turning" for her campaign after a series of defeats running from after Super Tuesday, Feb. 6, through March 4 Super Tuesday II. Clinton won three out of four popular vote counts that day, but in the six weeks since, had barely been able to escape the growing chorus of Democrats looking for a quick end to the nominating season.

Clinton's win adds heft to her central argument that she can carry big swing states Democrats need to win the general election. She had previously won primaries in Texas, California, Ohio and her home state of New York, while Obama won his home state of Illinois.

The remaining contests will be held every week between May 6 and the Puerto Rico primary on June 7.

"We're not only going to change the dynamic -- it's the equivalent of a political earthquake," Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said at Clinton's Philadelphia rally Tuesday night.

"Hillary had a great night ... It went exactly according to script," Democratic strategist Susan Estrich told FOX News. "And she's not going anywhere."

But neither is Obama, Estrich noted, especially given his record fundraising.

Obama outspent Clinton in Pennsylvania ad time by nearly three-to-one, a fact Clinton repeatedly highlighted in her attempt to cast her Tuesday win as an impressive comeback.

Clinton's victory did result in an inflow of needed funds to her campaign treasury, which is woefully shy of Obama's bounty of cash. The Clinton campaign claimed it raised $2.5 million in the two and a half hours after the Pennsylvania race was called Tuesday.

"Eighty percent of that money is coming from new donors to the campaign. It's our best night ever," Clinton spokesman Phil Singer wrote in an e-mail to reporters.

As to the Pennsylvania victory, Clinton aides said they were able to pull off the margins they did by exceeding turnout expectations in Obama's Philadelphia stronghold. Clinton coupled that with "tremendous" returns in rural parts of the state, aides said.

But the hard-fought win could foretell a bitter tone in the coming weeks as the candidates turned loudly critical of one another in the days leading up to Pennsylvania's vote. Obama did call Clinton late Tuesday to congratulate her, despite the two candidates having been showered with critical ads in Pennsylvania. The turn in tone, while seemingly disliked by the public, helped spur record turnout in the state.

Meanwhile, McCain and his campaign are clearly satisfied by the intra-party fighting on the other side. The Arizona senator campaigned in Youngstown, Ohio, Tuesday, to talk about free trade and economic growth in a town hall-style setting.

"The biggest problem is not so much what's happened with free trade, but our inability to adjust to a new world economy," McCain said, speaking frankly with voters who live in an area where international trade agreements are not popular.

FOX News' Aaron Bruns and Bonney Kapp contributed to this report.

 

RCP Poll

President Obama Job Approval

RCP Average: +5.6% Details
Approve 49.9%
Disapprove 44.3%

Congressional Job Approval

RCP Average: -37.3% Details
Approve 27.0%
Disapprove 64.3%

Direction of Country

RCP Average: -19.5% Details
Right Direction 37.7%
Wrong Track 57.2%