(CNN) — Sen. Hillary Clinton rode the momentum of her
Pennsylvania win into Indiana on Wednesday, with her campaign saying it
is on pace to raise $10 million in 24 hours.
Clinton reported raising $20 million in all of March, according to
campaign finance reports filed last weekend. Sen. Barack Obama raised
more than twice as much last month, taking in $41 million for his
campaign.
Obama’s camp touted a big boost for his campaign Wednesday: endorsements from 49 John Edwards supporters.
Edwards, a former North Carolina senator who dropped out of the
Democratic presidential race in January, has yet to endorse a candidate.
Indiana and North Carolina hold primaries May 6, the next date on the
primary calendar in what has become a protracted and, at times,
bruising fight for the Democratic nomination. Obama is leading in North
Carolina, and it’s a tight race in Indiana, according to recent polls.
Both Democratic candidates picked up superdelegates Wednesday, with
Obama getting the support of Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry and Clinton
receiving a nod from Tennessee Rep. John Tanner.
Clinton and Obama both planned to stump in Indiana on Wednesday, following Clinton’s decisive win in Pennsylvania. She beat Obama by 10 points.
With the win, Clinton will pick up 81 of Pennsylvania’s 158 delegates,
and Obama won 69, CNN estimates. Eight delegates have yet to be
allocated.
The New York senator said Wednesday that her much-needed victory raises fresh questions about Obama’s electability.
Obama downplayed Clinton’s win, saying “it’s important for people to keep things in perspective.”
“We have won the white-, blue-collar vote in a whole bunch of states
… and if we had a demographic problem in Pennsylvania, it was that
it’s an older state than a lot of states, and it is true that Sen.
Clinton has some strong support among voters over 60,” he said on
Roland Martin’s radio show.
Clinton argued that the “tide is turning” as a result of her Tuesday victory.
“I won that double-digit victory that everybody on TV said I had to
win, and the voters of Pennsylvania clearly made their views known,
that they think I would be the best president and the better candidate
to go against Sen. McCain,” referring to the presumptive Republican
candidate, John McCain of Arizona.
“Clearly, [Obama] outspent me again in Pennsylvania, 3 to 1, and we
roared back with a tremendous grass-roots campaign and millions of
people turning out to vote and favoring me by a big margin. … The
fair question is, if you can’t win the states we have to win in the
fall, maybe that says something about your general-election appeal,”
she said.
Clinton has scored wins in the large states of California, New York,
Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania as well as in the Florida primary, which
violated Democratic party rules because it was held at the end of
January.
Obama, however, has won more state primaries and caucuses than Clinton
and leads her in the overall delegate count as well as the popular
vote, despite her win Tuesday night. Obama leads Clinton 1,719 to
1,586, CNN estimates.
Neither candidate can capture the 2,025 delegates needed to secure the
Democratic nomination with wins in the remaining Democratic contests,
meaning the party’s superdelegates will probably decide who gets the
Democratic nomination.
Clinton and her backers have argued that the superdelegates should vote
for her over Obama, despite his lead in the delegate count and the
popular vote, because she is the more electable candidate in a general
election.
Clinton won Tuesday by holding on to the core group of voters who have
fueled her previous victories. She won a majority of female voters,
voters over the age of 45 and white voters.
And, in a troubling sign for the Obama camp, only 50 percent of
Pennsylvania voters who picked Clinton said they would vote for Obama
if he was the Democratic nominee, but 26 percent said they would vote
for McCain.
Nineteen percent of Clinton’s Pennsylvania supporters said they would
not vote in the fall if she was not the Democratic nominee.
Obama’s inability to cut into Clinton’s support among those groups may
raise some concerns on whether he could win those groups if he became
the Democrats’ nominee.
Speaking to supporters in Evansville, Indiana, on Tuesday night, Obama
dismissed questions about his ability to cross racial, gender and
generational boundaries.
“We can continue to slice and dice this country … or this time, we
can build on the movement we started in this campaign, a movement
that’s united Democrats, independents, Republicans, young, old, rich,
poor, white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight,”
he said. “Because one thing I know, from traveling 46 states this
campaign season, is that we are not as divided as our politics suggest.”
“Now, it’s up to you, Indiana. … You can decide whether we’re going
to travel the same worn path or whether we will chart a new course that
offers real hope for the future,” the Illinois Democrat said.
Source — CNN
