US Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton beat front-runner Barack Obama by 10 points in the Pennsylvania primary, a victory that stamped out speculation she would cede the race to her rival and exit the increasingly divisive contest for the party’s nomination.
Clinton overcame massive spending by Obama, who had significantly cut the New York senator’s early overwhelming advantage in the state. But after a rugged and caustic six-week campaign, voting blocs who favored Clinton — older, working-class, less educated Pennsylvanians — stood fast behind her.
Speaking about her victory, Clinton said yesterday morning that her coalition “is the best to win against [Senator] John McCain.”
PHOTO: AFP
She told the NBC television’s Today program she had already raised US$3 million for her heavily indebted campaign with an Internet appeal launched after her Pennsylvania win.
Nevertheless, Obama leaves the hard-fought contest with his lead in pledged delegates and the popular vote intact, as both candidates move on the primary campaigns in the states of Indiana — a toss-up — and North Carolina, where the Illinois senator was expected to win easily because of the large population of African Americans.
Some Democratic leaders were looking for a closer Pennsylvania outcome that could have led Clinton to leave the race, allowing the party five months to unite behind Obama before the November general election.
McCain, who wrapped up the Republican nomination weeks ago, has pulled even with both Democrats as their struggle to lead the ticket has dragged on.
At a victory rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, Clinton told wildly cheering supporters “the tide is turning.”
“Some counted me out and said to drop out,” Clinton told supporters cheering her triumph in a state where she was outspent by more than two-to-one. “But the American people don’t quit. And they deserve a president who doesn’t quit either.”
Exit polls showed Clinton won the support of working-class voters, women and whites in an election where the economy was the dominant concern. More than 80 percent of voters surveyed as they left their polling places said the US was already in a recession.
Obama was favored by blacks, the affluent and voters who recently switched to the Democratic Party.
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