Indiana polls close as Obama and Clinton duel
EditorIndiana polls close as Obama and Clinton duelWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The polls closed in Indiana and voting wound down in North Carolina on Tuesday, the latest battlegrounds in a grueling Democratic presidential fight between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.The two states, with a combined 187 delegates to the August nominating convention at stake, are the biggest prizes left in the race to pick the party's presidential candidate in November's election. After Tuesday, only six contests remain.Clinton led Obama 59 percent to 41 percent with about 4 percent of votes counted in Indiana.The two Democrats, who have been locked in see-saw battle for months, appeared headed to a split of the two states. Clinton was favored in Indiana, and Obama leads opinion polls in North Carolina, where voting ends at 7:30 EDT."I think it's going to be close. I don't think anybody really knows exactly what's going to happen," Obama told reporters in Greenwood, Indiana, as he visited a diner for breakfast.A pair of losses would be disastrous for Clinton, the New York senator and former first lady who is struggling to overtake Obama in the White House race.She had cut Obama's advantage in North Carolina to single digits in most polls over the past few weeks. The two ran close in opinion polls in Indiana, where Clinton had a slight edge."Every race is filled with the unexpected. It's like life. You never know what's going to happen," Clinton, who would be the first woman U.S. president, told reporters during a visit to the Indianapolis speedway.Her campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, predicted on MSNBC that Clinton would win Indiana. "And I think we're closing very fast in North Carolina," he said.Exit polls showed the economy was the top issue for two-thirds of Indiana voters and about 6 of every 10 voters in North Carolina. Clinton narrowly led among those voters in Indiana, while Obama led in North Carolina.Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, was winning 9 out of 10 black voters in North Carolina, who made up about one third of the state's primary voters, exit polls showed.OBAMA LEADS IN DELEGATESObama, an Illinois senator, has an almost unassailable lead in pledged delegates who will help select the Democratic nominee to face Republican John McCain in November.If Obama wins in both Indiana and North Carolina on Tuesday, it would end Clinton's slender hopes of catching him in either delegates or popular votes won in the nomination battle and spark renewed calls for her to step aside.Clinton victories in both states could fuel doubts about Obama's electability and persuade some superdelegates -- party insiders free to back any candidate at the nominating convention -- to move toward her.Neither can win enough delegates to clinch the race before the state-by-state voting ends on June 3, leaving the decision to the nearly 800 superdelegates.A split decision in Tuesday's contests would leave the race largely unchanged before the last six contests, with 217 delegates at stake.Obama has struggled through a rough campaign stretch after last month's loss to Clinton in Pennsylvania, dogged by a furor over his comments on "bitter" small-town residents and a controversy over his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.The two Democrats, courting working- and middle-class voters suffering from an ailing economy and high gas prices, spent much of the past few days focusing on Clinton's proposal for a lifting of the federal gasoline tax during the summer.Obama and many economists called the plan a political gimmick that would save little money for most families, but Clinton launched an advertisement in both states questioning her rival's stance."What has happened to Barack Obama?" an announcer asks. "He is attacking Hillary's plan to give you a break on gas prices because he doesn't have one."Clinton says a suspension of the tax during June, July and August, when many Americans take to the highways on vacation, would help people deal with record gas prices. There is little chance Congress will take up any gas tax proposal this year.Obama, whose campaign has been centered on doing away with politics as usual, released his own advertisement saying Clinton offered "more of the same old negative politics."He said the gas tax holiday was a dishonest approach to a real problem
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