A day after Hillary Clinton's win over Barack Obama in the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania, both sides are in full spin mode about what her narrow victory means.
On Wednesday, Clinton claimed her win -- by just under ten percentage points -- would turn the tide of the campaign.
"I won that double-digit victory that everybody on TV said I had to win, and the voters of Pennsylvania clearly made their views known, that they think I would be the best president and the better candidate to go against Senator McCain," she said Wednesday.
But Obama, who is leading in delegates, the popular vote, and states won, said his loss yesterday was an aberration -- and he remains the stronger candidate.
"We have won the white, blue collar vote in a whole bunch of states ... and if we had a demographic problem in Pennsylvania, it was that it's an older state than a lot of states, and it is true that Senator Clinton has some strong support among voters over 60," he said on a radio talk show.
Analysts say that Clinton remains the underdog in the Democratic presidential candidate race despite the Pennsylvania win.
Clinton took about 55 per cent of the vote Tuesday, while Obama, the rookie senator from Illinois, received about 45 per cent.
Under Democratic Party rules whichever candidate gets 2,025 delegates by the party's August convention will get the nomination.
By some media counts, Obama leads by about 150 delegates, even with yesterday's loss. It is nearly impossible for Clinton to catch Obama in the remaining contests, without the help of about 800 superdelegates. Superdelegates are party insiders, who can vote for either candidate and may be swayed by arguments from the two camps.
"I think in the long run, (Clinton) has to appeal to those superdelegates because it's quite clear that she will not finish the primaries with a delegate total ahead of Obama," George Washington University political scientist Christopher Arterton told Â鶹´«Ã½net on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, Scotty Greenwood, a Democratic strategist who has reportedly made the maximum allowable contribution of $2,300 to the Clinton campaign, told Newsnet both candidates are "running a fantastic campaign."
"It's really a great time to be a Democrat in the United States," said Greenwood, who was Bill Clinton's chief of staff of the U.S. embassy in Canada.
The Clinton campaign claims Tuesday's victory resulted in US$10 million in new campaign contributions in the past 24 hours.
But Obama is still seen as having a huge funding advantage. Some estimates suggest he raised at least $40 million just last month.
Before Tuesday's results, Obama had 1,645 delegates and Clinton had 1,507, according to The Associated Press. Because of proportional representation, it will be extremely difficult for either candidate to change the pledged delegate difference in the remaining primary contests.
Along with North Carolina and Indiana, the remaining Democratic primaries are in Oregon, Kentucky, West Virginia, Montana, South Dakota and Puerto Rico. There will also be caucuses in Guam.
