Published: May 06, 2008 05:05 pm            

Indiana, North Carolina voters take to the polls

INDIANAPOLIS – Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama battled in the Indiana and North Carolina primaries on Tuesday, the last big-delegate prizes left in their marathon race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Obama began the day with 1,745.5 delegates, to 1,608 for Clinton, out of 2,025 needed for the nomination.

Both races were dominated in the final days by Clinton’s call for a summertime suspension of the federal gasoline tax, an issue that she created after scoring a victory in the Pennsylvania primary two weeks ago.

Obama ridiculed the proposal as a stunt that would cost jobs, not the break for consumers she claimed. The two rivals dug in, devoting personal campaign time and television commercials to the issue.

Indiana had 72 delegates at stake, and Clinton projected confidence about the results by arranging a primary-night appearance in Indianapolis.

North Carolina had 115 delegates at stake, and Obama countered with a rally in Raleigh.

The rivals made their final appeals in Indiana as the polls opened, the former first lady at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Obama greeting early morning diners at a restaurant.

Clinton declined to offer a prediction about the outcome. Obama wouldn’t either, except to say, “I think it’s going to be close.”

Obama leads Clinton in delegates won in primaries and caucuses. Despite his defeat two weeks ago, he has steadily whittled away at her advantage in superdelegates in the past two weeks and trails 269.5 to 255.

Clinton saved her candidacy with her win in Pennsylvania, and she campaigned aggressively in Indiana in hopes of denying Obama a victory next door to his home state of Illinois. Indiana is home to large numbers of blue-collar workers who have been attracted to the former first lady, and she sought to use her call for a federal gas tax holiday to draw them and other economically pinched voters closer.

Inevitably, the issue quickly took on larger dimensions.

Obama said it symbolized a candidacy consisting of “phony ideas, calculated to win elections instead of actually solving problems.”

Clinton retorted, “Instead of attacking the problem, he’s attacking my solutions,” and ran an ad in the campaign’s final hours that said she “gets it.”

To a large extent, the gasoline tax eclipsed the controversy surrounding Obama’s former pastor. After saying several weeks earlier he could not disown the Rev. Jeremiah Wright for his fiery sermons, Obama did precisely that when the minister embarked on a media tour.

At a news conference in North Carolina last week, Obama equated Wright’s comments with “giving comfort to those who prey on hate.”

The balance of the primary schedule includes West Virginia, with 28 delegates on May 13; Oregon with 52 and Kentucky with 51 a week later; Puerto Rico with 55 delegates on June 1, and Montana with 16 and South Dakota with 15 on June 3.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Republican nomination already in hand, campaigned in North Carolina and assailed Obama for his vote against confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts.

“Senator Obama in particular likes to talk up his background as a lecturer on law, and also as someone who can work across the aisle to get things done,” McCain said. “But ... he went right along with the partisan crowd, and was among the 22 senators to vote against this highly qualified nominee.”

Clinton also voted against Roberts, but McCain, as if often the case, focused his remarks on Obama.

Obama’s campaign responded that the Republican would pick judges who represent a threat to abortion rights and to McCain’s own legislation to limit the role of money in political campaigns.

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David Espo reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Tom Raum in Indianapolis and Libby Quaid in Winston-Salem contributed to this report.

        

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