White House hopeful Hillary Clinton strove to stem rival Barack Obama's surge in the Democratic nomination race Monday as she wooed Wisconsin's blue-collar voters.
On the Republican side, runaway front-runner John McCain won the endorsement of former president George H.W. Bush, who could help the maverick senator court conservatives suspicious of where his loyalties lie.
The Democratic rivals fired off television advertisements and spent the weekend campaigning across the Midwestern state in a tough fight for Wisconsin's 74 delegates with the latest poll showing Obama with a narrow five-point lead over Clinton.
A win here Tuesday could give Clinton's faltering campaign a much-needed shot in the arm before a major showdown on March 4 in Ohio and Texas, where she currently holds double-digit leads in the fight for their combined 334 delegates.
Clinton is trailing Obama 1,235 to 1,302 delegates after he won eight straight primaries and caucuses since February 9, according to independent poll-tracker RealClearPolitics.com.
At least 2,025 delegates are needed to win the Democratic nomination.
The Illinois senator could make it 10 in a row Tuesday by capturing Wisconsin and the caucuses in Hawaii, the Pacific island state where he was born and which is holding caucuses on the same day.
Both camps acknowledged Monday that the Wisconsin primary would be close a race.
"We expect tomorrow will be competitive," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters.
The Clinton campaign was similarly cautious.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
