|
New York: US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's loss to rival Barack Obama in Wisconsin on Tuesday leaves her one last chance to stop her surging opponent, in upcoming contests in Texas and Ohio.
Clinton has now lost nine voting contests in a row and her one-time front-running campaign is scrambling to raise doubts about first-term Illinois Senator Obama's level of experience and his tendency to rely more on stylish oratory than substance.
"It's about picking a president who relies not just on words, but on work, hard work, to get America back to work - someone who's not just in the speeches business, but will get America back in the solutions business," Clinton said in Ohio.
Analysts said Clinton needs to do well in the last two debates of the Democratic campaign, one today in the Texas capital of Austin and the other next week in Ohio, to slow Obama's momentum toward the Democratic nomination for November's election.
Nathaniel Persily, a political expert and professor at Columbia University of Law, said Clinton not only has to win both states on March 4, but win them big enough, given Obama's overall lead in delegates.
"If she loses those states, then she's lost," Persily said, adding that it is still possible she can pull it off.
But Merle Black, a political science professor at Emory University in Atlanta said the hole Clinton is in is "huge, and getting bigger".
In losing Wisconsin, Clinton suffered the indignity of having the Republican opponent she relishes running against, Arizona Senator John McCain, look past her to launch a withering attack on Obama.
"I will fight every moment of every day in this campaign to make sure Americans are not deceived by an eloquent but empty call for change," McCain said in celebrating his victory in Wisconsin over former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.
Obama already sounded like he was looking past Clinton, accusing McCain of wanting to continue the policies of President George W. Bush and saying the 71-year-old senator "represents the policies of yesterday, and we want to be the party of tomorrow".
|
