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Obama wins N.C. primary, Clinton leads in Indiana .By DAVID ESPO and LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press
Writers
3 minutes ago INDIANAPOLIS - Barack Obama swept to victory in the North Carolina primary Tuesday night
and declared he was closing in on the Democratic presidential nomination. Hillary Rodham Clinton led
narrowly in Indiana, struggling to halt her rival's march into history."Tonight we stand less than 200 delegates
away from winning the Democratic nomination for president of the United States," Obama told a raucous rally
in Raleigh, N.C. — and left no doubt he intended to claim the prize.
He said it appeared Clinton had won Indiana's primary. Thousands of votes had yet to be counted, principally
in Lake County, a heavily black area not far from Obama's home city of Chicago.
Returns from 62 percent of North Carolina precincts showed Obama was winning 56 percent of the vote to
42 percent for Clinton, a triumph that mirrored his earlier wins in Southern states with large black populations.
Obama won at least 40 delegates and Clinton at least 31 in the two states, with 116 still to be awarded.
That made Indiana a virtual must-win Midwestern state for the former first lady, hoping to counter Obama's
persistent delegate advantage with a strong run through the late primaries.
There, returns from 79 percent of the precincts showed Clinton with 52 percent of the vote to 48 percent for
Obama.
Voters in both states fell along racial patterns long since established in a marathon race between the nation's
strongest-ever black presidential candidate and its most formidable female challenger for the White House.
The economy was the top issue by far in both states, according to interviews with voters as they left their
polling places.
Two weeks after a decisive defeat in Pennsylvania, Obama sounded increasingly like he was looking
forward to the fall campaign.
"This primary season may not be over, but when it is, we will have to remember who we are as Democrats ...
because we all agree that at this defining moment in history — a moment when we're facing two wars, an
economy in turmoil, a planet in peril — we can't afford to give John McCain the chance to serve out George
Bush's third term."
Obama was gaining more than 90 percent of the black vote in Indiana, while Clinton was winning an
estimated 61 percent of the white vote there.
In North Carolina, Clinton won 60 percent of the white vote, while Obama claimed support from roughly 90
percent of the blacks who cast ballots.
Obama's delegate haul edged him closer to his prize — 1785.5 to 1,639 for Clinton in The Associated Press
count, out of 2,025 needed to win the nomination.
He has long led Clinton among delegates won in the primaries and caucuses, and has increasingly narrowed
his deficit among superdelegates who will attend the convention by virtue of their stats as party leaders. The
AP tally showed Clinton with 269.5 superdelegates, and Obama with 255.
The impact of a long-running controversy over Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was difficult
to measure.
In North Carolina, six in 10 voters who said Wright's incendiary comments affected their votes sided with
Clinton. A somewhat larger percentage of voters who said the pastor's remarks did not matter supported
Obama.
The effect of Clinton's call for a summertime suspension of the federal gasoline tax — which dominated the
final days of the two primaries — was impossible to judge.
The questionnaire used to learn about voter motivation did not include any questions about the gasoline tax.
In Indiana, about one in five voters said they were independents, an additional one in 10 said Republican.
Only Democrats and unaffiliated voters were permitted to vote in North Carolina.
Voting in Indiana was carried out under a state law, recently upheld by the Supreme Court, that requires
voters to produce a valid photo ID. About a dozen nuns in their 80s and 90s at St. Mary's Convent in South
Bend were denied ballots because they lacked the necessary identification. Only Democrats and unaffiliated
voters were permitted to vote in North Carolina.
Voting in Indiana was carried out under a state law, recently upheld by the Supreme Court, that requires
voters to produce a valid photo ID. About a dozen nuns in their 80s and 90s at St. Mary's Convent in South
Bend were denied ballots because they lacked the necessary identification.
Obama began the day with 1,745.5 delegates, to 1,608 for Clinton, out of 2,025 needed for the nomination.
Both races were dominated in the final days by Clinton's call for a summertime suspension of the federal
gasoline tax, an issue that she created after scoring a victory in the Pennsylvania primary two weeks ago.
Obama ridiculed the proposal as a stunt that would cost jobs, not the break for consumers she claimed. The
two rivals dug in, devoting personal campaign time and television commercials to the issue.
Indiana had 72 delegates at stake, and Clinton projected confidence about the results by arranging a primary-
night appearance in Indianapolis.
North Carolina had 115 delegates at stake, and Obama countered with a rally in Raleigh.
Obama leads Clinton in delegates won in primaries and caucuses. Despite his defeat two weeks ago, he
has steadily whittled away at her advantage in superdelegates in the past two weeks and trails 269.5 to 255.
Clinton saved her candidacy with her win in Pennsylvania, and she campaigned aggressively in Indiana in
hopes of denying Obama a victory next door to his home state of Illinois. Indiana is home to large numbers of
blue-collar workers who have been attracted to the former first lady, and she sought to use her call for a
federal gas tax holiday to draw them and other economically pinched voters closer.
Inevitably, the issue quickly took on larger dimensions.
Obama said it symbolized a candidacy consisting of "phony ideas, calculated to win elections instead of
actually solving problems."
Clinton retorted, "Instead of attacking the problem, he's attacking my solutions," and ran an ad in the
campaign's final hours that said she "gets it."
To a large extent, the gasoline tax eclipsed the controversy surrounding Obama's former pastor. After saying
several weeks earlier he could not disown the Rev. Jeremiah Wright for his fiery sermons, Obama did
precisely that when the minister embarked on a media tour.
At a news conference in North Carolina last week, Obama equated Wright's comments with "giving comfort
to those who prey on hate."
The balance of the primary schedule includes West Virginia, with 28 delegates on May 13; Oregon with 52
and Kentucky with 51 a week later; Puerto Rico with 55 delegates on June 1, and Montana with 16 and South
Dakota with 15 on June 3.
Sen. McCain of Arizona, the Republican nomination already in hand, campaigned in North Carolina and
assailed Obama for his vote against confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts.
"Senator Obama in particular likes to talk up his background as a lecturer on law, and also as someone who
can work across the aisle to get things done," McCain said. "But ... he went right along with the partisan
crowd, and was among the 22 senators to vote against this highly qualified nominee."
Clinton also voted against Roberts, but McCain, as is often the case, focused his remarks on Obama.
Obama's campaign responded that the Republican would pick judges who represent a threat to abortion
rights and to McCain's own legislation to limit the role of money in political campaigns.
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