Polls Show Obama Struggling to ‘Close the Deal’
Barack Obama speaks to reporters Friday in Indianapolis, Ind. (AP Photo)
More than a week after Barack Obama vowed to “close the deal” and wrap up the Democratic presidential nomination, he finds Hillary Clinton closing the gap and polls showing Americans still questioning his relationship with his controversial former pastor.
Clinton, still numerically outmatched when it comes to delegates won, is experiencing a surge in North Carolina and Indiana, which are holding primaries Tuesday and will set the trajectory for the campaign’s final weeks.
An average of polls on RealClearPolitics.com shows Obama with a 7-point lead in North Carolina; last month he was carrying the state in some surveys by more than 20 points. And Indiana, a state that was thought to be neck-and-neck, is trending toward Clinton. Averages show her up by 6 points in the state.
Clinton was endorsed Friday by The Indianapolis Star, which circulates in the state’s competitive capital suburbs. And a new Rasmussen Poll indicated that voters weren’t accepting Obama’s moves this week to denounce his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and shed the controversy surrounding him.
Fifty-eight percent of those polled said Obama denounced Wright out of political convenience, not outrage. The poll was conducted nationally Wednesday and Thursday night.
“This primary election on Tuesday is a game-changer. This is going to make a huge difference going forward,” Clinton said Friday in Kinston, N.C. “The entire country and probably the entire world is looking to see what North Carolina decides.”
North Carolina and Indiana offer 115 and 72 delegates, respectively, representing Obama’s last one-day chance to pull away in the delegate count and leave Clinton in the dust. The six contests that will remain after Tuesday each offer fewer than 60 delegates, and individually are unlikely to have a big impact on the dynamic of the race.
Asked about his apparent rut at a press conference in Indianapolis Friday, Obama tried to find the silver lining.
“We have had a rough couple of weeks; I won’t deny that,” he said. “And what’s remarkable is that, despite that, we are seeing terrific support all across Indiana and all across North Carolina. I have been incredibly encouraged over the last several days as we have campaigned. …
“This campaign has been tight throughout. But I am very confident that the American people are looking for the kind of truth-telling and serious policy-making that is going to have an impact on their lives. And as long as I am talking about the issues that matter to them, I think we have a terrific chance,” he said.
Obama’s nearly 10-point loss in Pennsylvania on April 22 made a set of victories Tuesday all the more important for him. He would like to shake Clinton and send a signal to uncommitted superdelegates that he’s the Democrat with the mandate from voters.
Clinton needs those superdelegates to overcome Obama’s total delegate lead, which as of Friday was 1,736 to 1,602.
In the past two months, Obama has whittled Clinton’s superdelegate lead by half. Clinton holds a 20-superdelegate lead, 268 to 248.
One notable superdelegate, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Joe Andrew, switched his support from Clinton to Obama on Thursday, despite having been named to the top party job by former President Bill Clinton.
“This has got to come to an end,” Andrew said from his hometown of Indianapolis. He said he planned to call all the other superdelegates he knows and encourage them to back Obama.
Obama also got the backing Friday of former DNC Chairman Paul Kirk Jr., who said in a statement: “Senator Obama is the one candidate who has and will continue to expand the electorate beyond the traditional Democratic party base and bring young and new and independent voters to the Democratic banner in November, an essential ingredient to a Democratic victory. …
“After the attention paid to the poisonous and polarizing diatribe of recent days, Senator Obama’s clear and compelling message, which appeals to our best instincts as Americans, is more important than ever.”
Clinton’s campaign brushed off Kirk’s endorsement as “old news.”
FOX News’ Aaron Bruns and Bonney Kapp and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Obama can’t win in November. He won’t win against Mccain. I hope voters realize this.
I happen to be a lawyer. What impresses me the most about Barack Obama is a man regardless of his color who graduated from Harvard Law School Magnum Cum Laude. This is very high honors for those who don’t know. It is hard enough to get into the number one law school in the nation much less compete with the best law students in the United States in grade point average. Not only was Barack Obama a honors law student but he was also voted as the President of the Harvard Law Review which is quite impressive. This man Barack Obama is not a black man but an exceptional man with an exceptional mind. On the other hand, Hilliary Clinton went to Yale Law School which is rank the second best law school in the nation. There was no mention as to her achieving any exceptional efforts in her law school endeavors other than just meeting Bill Clinton and graduating. If we look at the thought processes of Hilliary with the gas tax and the mandatory forced health care, and her contradictory position in the War in Iraq, we see her judgment is not even close as Barack Obama judgment. The Reverend Wright controversy is not based on comments which came directly out of Obama’s mouth like Hilliary’s sniper fire remarks in Bosnia came directly from her mouth. So who has the better judgment and who will make the better President of the United States.
So hillary is at it again, trying to have obama put down. I would not be surprised if she paid some one to have Rev Wright to say all these things. The picture needs to resurface with Wright at the clinton white house. And also when hillary asked him to come and pray for her during the monica deal. How about here pastor who is supposed to be a child molester. So should this also not be brought up. Of course she has a million to pay them to shut up, and to buy the super delegates to come over to her. She might as pick Willy as vp, cause he will be running the show any way. He can live in the vp living quarters and get another string of monicas going. Is this the kind of people we want in the white house? I think not. Well I believe Obama will rise above all this and come to the top again.
Obama has lost his oomph. — Whereas Hillary is going 100mph.
VOTE BARACK OBAMA. HE is the ONE
“Close the Deal”. The only place I have ever heard that is in SALES jobs and thank goodness Obama doesn’t close us. I am sick of being sold a bill of goods. I am a registered Republican who now supports Obama with great optimism that we are not being sold, as usual.
Can someone explain to me why I am called a racist if I say I am voting for Hillary because is a white woman, but black Americans can say they are voting for Obama because he is black and their not called a racist? It appears to me that 90% of black Americans are racist! Just speaking the truth here people, just speacking the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts but it must hurt to get better.
RE: Thompson’s comment
I BEG to differ FOX NEWS is the only network covering the democratic primary accurately and fairly.
Obama cannot win in November, wake up, he will be eaten alive with all his controversies. All the democrats I know will not vote for him they would rather vote for McCain
Bottom line: he is a junior senator with ties to very questionable people, he’s all talk but talk doesn’t make a great president.
OBAMA SHOULD DROP OUT! FOR THE PARTIES SAKE…
HILLARY CLINTON 4 PRESIDENT
Obama and his wife are like the bad used car sales people, they smooth talk, and don’t think that voters listen when they double talk. Obama did just what his pastor said, he did what political figures do, he says what he needs to, to get to acheive his objective….so how is that a change from any other political figure? We have to talk about this guy, because he is an issue all his self. Remember this one: Its improtant to be right on day one….well with all the stuff that has dogged him these last weeks, he wont be right on day one, he would be just the same type of candidate that we have seen in past elections. He will get the nomination, because people ran out hopped on a band wagon, before they knew anything about the guy. Well he might get the nomination, but at least Hillary isn’t going to let him off easy, like so many that voted for the guy.
Senator Obama is a lawyer. Senator Obama has been in court (do not know) with a case. I have been on a jury or two. I and other jury members would see during the trial lawyers on opposing sides smack, argue, shout to render their case to the jury. All the shouting and rendering to the jury would leave some to believe the opposing lawyers may hate one another yet the who thing is just a show to properly defend their client. I see the same with Senator Obama and his yanking the chain of Dr. Wright. Did he really yank the chain? Was this an event put on the public stage to convince the jury (you and I) to vote the way of Senator Obama’s client (himself)? To date the Senator has not convinced myself even though I consider him a good candidate for President. I have doubts if electiced, would President Obama place Dr. Wright with all his pitfalls in the Whitehouse Staff?