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Clinton Outbids Obama over Voter Confidence

Posted March. 07, 2008 03:08,   

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Senator Hillary Clinton pumped new life into her presidential campaign on Tuesday with decisive primary wins in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island. Despite Clinton’s victories, her rival Barack Obama remained confident and said he had an "insurmountable lead" in the race for the party nomination.

Although Obama’s defeat in the “Second Super Tuesday” primaries is unlikely to make much difference in his lead over Clinton in the battle for the delegates, it has significant impacts on the current dynamics of his fight for Democratic nomination. Some experts went so far as to say that, “Obama wake up to a totally different morning Thursday,” as there are signs of shifting voter confidence among Democratic voters.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey, released on Thursday, shows Obama with 48 percent trails Clinton by 5 percent. Clinton’s wins came after she had been defeated by Obama in 11 contests in succession in the month since the “Super Tuesday” on early February. “Rasmussen Political Market” prediction on election campaigns also gave Obama 71.4 percent of chance to become the democratic nominee, down from 87 percent.

In a television interview on Wednesday, Clinton was asked about a joint bid with the first-term senator from Illinois. "Well, that may, you know, be where this is headed. But of course, we have to decide who’s on the top of the ticket," Clinton said." "And I think that the people of Ohio very clearly said that it should be me," she said with confidence.

She assured her final wins in the democratic race, saying, “I could become the last winner in this battle if I win in the next big state primary in Pennsylvania on April 22 and secure 300 more super delegates.”

There is a slim chance for Obama to win in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary since the state with 188 delegates share similar aspects with Ohio where he lost in the latest primaries.

Surveys show that Clinton has strong support among working-class and elderly citizens in Pennsylvania, while only a 10 percent of young people aged 18 to 24 shows support toward Obama. The population of African Americans in the area is relatively small. A recent local poll suggested that Obama trails Clinton by 6 percent in approval rates in the state of Pennsylvania.

In response to Clinton campaign’s suggestions that she is better equipped to handle a foreign policy crisis than him, Obama targeted her credentials. However, given his negative attacks do not go well with his image representing a new politics, his campaign strategy had little impact.

Clinton’s victories have more crucial meaning than just a huge psychological boost to her campaign. That’s because the voters are now focusing on candidates’ abilities to handle a variety of national affairs such as foreign policy, security, economy.

The leading neo-conservative magazine Weekly Standard said on Wednesday that the first thing John McCain (who became the Republican nominee) is that, “he should burst the bubble of Obama to take him down.” In other words, it urged McCain to take issues with him over pending issues such as diplomacy and security.

With McCain’s clinch of the Republican nomination, candidates’ capacity to manage national affairs began drawing much voter interest.



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