Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama appears to have gathered enough momentum heading into today’s Super Tuesday primaries to keep himself in the race for weeks or even months.
That means Obama fully expects to compete in the “Potomac Primary” next Tuesday, when voters go to the polls in Virginia, Maryland and Washington.
Nationally, Obama has already pulled to within 2.5 percentage points of rival Hillary Clinton after spending more than a year trailing her by double-digit margins, according to Real Clear Politics. Here in California, the biggest prize among the 22 states holding Democratic primaries today, Obama has closed a 25-point gap and is now tied with Clinton at 42 percent.
“Because of Obama’s growing momentum across the country, the Clinton campaign is now unlikely to reach their stated goals of wrapping up the nomination tomorrow,” Obama strategist David Plouffe told reporters Monday.
“Our path to the nomination never factored in a big day for us on Feb. 5,” he added. “Rather, we always planned to stay close enough in the delegate count so that we could proceed to individually focus on the states in the next set of contests.”
The Clinton campaign, which had once hoped to deliver a knockout punch to Obama’s candidacy today, is now resigned to a grinding war of attrition.
“You know, I think this is going to be a long race,” Clinton adviser Kiki McLean told CNN Monday. “I don’t think that everything ends tomorrow night when polls close.”
With each passing day, Obama becomes a bigger threat to Clinton. The stress was evident on Monday, when Clinton cried during a visit to the Yale Child Study Center, where she worked 35 years ago.
“Well, I said I would not tear up,” Clinton said with a smile as she wiped tears from her eyes.
It recalled an incident last month, when Clinton cried after losing the Iowa caucuses to Obama. Clinton staged a surprise win in New Hampshire the day after her emotional display, which she described as the moment she finally “found my voice.”
On Monday, Clinton momentarily lost her voice from overuse as she frantically criss-crossed the nation in a last-ditch bid for votes. She did a flurry of rallies and interviews, as well as an extended question-and-answer session with voters on the Hallmark TV channel.
But the quote that received the most press coverage Monday came from Obama’s wife, Michelle, who was asked whether Clinton would make a good running mate for Barack.
“I’d have to think about that,” Michelle told ABC. “I’d have to think about [her] policies, her approach, her tone.”
