Clinton, Obama in final push
By Susan Page
USA Today
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Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton campaigned across Texas yesterday amid last-minute pushes to prevail in tomorrow's primaries. The contests in Ohio and the Lone Star State may settle the party's nomination.
The rhetoric and the TV ads by the two campaigns took a critical tone as both stumped yesterday in Ohio. Clinton questioned whether her opponent had the experience necessary to be commander in chief. Obama blasted her judgment for voting to authorize the invasion of Iraq.
"She has supposedly all this vast foreign-policy experience," the Illinois senator told a town hall at Westerville Central High School in suburban Columbus. "Now, I have to say, when it came to making the most important foreign-policy decision of our generation, the decision to invade Iraq, Sen. Clinton got it wrong."
Earlier in the day, two miles away at Westerville North High School, Clinton urged voters to "think about this as a hiring decision, because when the cameras are gone and the lights are out ... the president has to decide when those calls come at 3 a.m."
Her campaign is airing a TV ad in Texas that features a ringing phone and implicitly questions whether her rival is prepared to handle the middle-of-the-night crises that arise in the White House.
She campaigns today in Beaumont and Austin. Obama is set to stump in San Antonio, Dallas and Houston.
Two months after the opening Iowa caucuses, the contests tomorrow in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont may amount to the primaries' endgame:
Or, wins for Clinton in the two big states could curb Obama's momentum and turn around the New York senator's flagging fortunes.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who sought the nomination, said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that tomorrow should be "D-Day" for the Democratic race.
"Whoever has the most delegates after Tuesday, a clear lead, should be, in my judgment, the nominee," he said.
The AP calculates Obama has 1,385 delegates to Clinton's 1,276; nomination requires 2,025.
Another Obama supporter, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, indicated Clinton should be prepared to withdraw unless she scores significant victories in both big states.
"None of us is going to suggest what decision she ought to make, but I think the bottom line is you have to measure the realities," Kerry, the Democratic nominee in 2004, said on CNN's "Late Edition."
Meanwhile, McCain took the day off the campaign trail. He hosted a barbecue at his home near Sedona, Ariz., for staffers, reporters and key supporters.
