Hillary Clinton asked to leave the race

Seoul News.Net
Sunday 2nd March, 2008

Supporters of Senator Barack Obama have suggested Senator Hillary Clinton bow out of the presidential nominating race if she doesn’t win in two big-state primary contests on Tuesday.

Influential Democrats have said they need to put together a unifying campaign for the presidential election in November.

Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont hold primary contests on Tuesday, and Clinton, having lost 11 straight contests, needs to win either Texas or Ohio.

Clinton, will have to dramatically exceed the results predicted by polls, which now show Texas sentiment as virtually even. Ohio voters tend to narrowly favour Clinton.

In the smaller states, Clinton holds a lead in Rhode Island polling, while Obama has the edge in Vermont.

Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate in 2004, said that Clinton would need more than narrow victories to remain a viable candidate.

He said on CNN: "Hillary Clinton has to win a big victory in both Ohio and Texas in order to close the gap on pledged delegates”.

Senator Dick Durbin, a fellow senator of Obama’s from Illinois, said that sheer mathematics would make it very difficult for Clinton to win the nomination, even if she broke even with Obama on Tuesday.

In a recent count, Clinton trailed Obama by 109 delegates, with 2,025 needed for nomination.

The four states voting Tuesday will award a total of 444 delegates, leaving just over 600 still to be decided.

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