Obama seizes back initiative

By FT Reporters in Washington

Barack Obama extended his lead in the Democratic presidential race on Tuesday night with a commanding victory in the North Carolina primary election.

Hillary Clinton held a narrow victory in Indiana and vowed to press ahead with her uphill battle for the nomination. As the final votes were counted, her margin was tightened further to 51 per cent against Mr Obama’s 49 per cent, aided largely by older voters.

In North Carolina, Mr Obama won by a resounding 56 per cent to 42 per cent, helped by overwhelming support from the state’s large African-American population.

The Illinois senator described the result as a victory against the “politics of division and the politics of distraction” after a fractious fortnight of racially-charged debate.

”Tonight we stand less than 200 delegates away from winning the Democratic nomination for president of the United States,” he told a victory rally in Raleigh, signaling confidence that the nomination was within grasp.

Mrs Clinton, however, struck a defiant tone in a speech to supporters in Indiana, declaring victory in the state despite news organisations declaring it too close to call.

She recalled how Mr Obama had described Indiana as a potential “tiebreaker” because it was a most finely balanced of the recent states to vote.

“Tonight we’ve come from behind, we’ve broken the tie and thanks to you, it’s full speed on to the White House,” she told cheering supporters in Indianapolis.

The New York senator made clear that she intended to fight on through the remaining seven state contests over the next month, despite having little chance of overhauling her opponent’s lead in elected delegates.

Mrs Clinton is counting on convincing “superdelegates” -- the nearly 800 Democratic party leaders whose votes could swing the race – that she has the best chance of beating John McCain, the Republican candidate, in November.

She appeared to be regaining momentum after victories in Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania over the past six weeks, while the Obama campaign was engulfed by the controversy surrounding Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor.

But Mr Obama’s lopsided victory in North Carolina, compared with Mrs Clinton’s much slimmer margin in Indiana, appeared likely to inject renewed confidence into his campaign and lengthen the odds against his opponent snatching the nomination.

Voting patterns in both states showed a continuing demographic split among Democratic voters. More than 90 per cent of African-Americans voted for Mr Obama in North Carolina, where they make up almost a third of the voters, and exit polls showed blue-collar white Democrats again strongly backing Mrs Clinton in both states. Almost half of voters also said the controversy Mr Obama’s former pastor influenced their vote.

For Democrats, the most disturbing aspect of Tuesday’s vote was the high and growing proportion of Mrs Clinton’s supporters who told exit pollsters they would not vote for Mr Obama in a general election – and vice versa.

Almost half of Mrs Clinton’s supporters and one in three of Mr Obama’s said they would vote for Mr McCain in November if the other secured the nomination. This suggests the widely observed racial breach that has been generated by the rancorous contest between the two continues to grow as the race drags on and will make it increasingly tough for the winner to unite the party against Mr McCain in the autumn presidential election.

Mr Obama acknowledged there were “bruised feelings’ on both sides of the contest but insisted the party would heal its wounds once the nomination was decided.

”This fall, we intend to march forward as one Democratic Party, united by a common vision for this country,” he said. ”We can’t afford to give John McCain the chance to serve out George Bush’s third term.”

Mrs Clinton made a similar call for unity, saying: “No matter what happens I will work for the nominee of the democratic party because we must win in November.”

The next contest is on Tuesday in West Virginia, which Mrs Clinton is expected to sweep. With black voters making up less than 5 per cent of the total, the largely blue-collar Appalachian state could give her a landslide.

Mrs Clinton made clear that she would continue fighting to have her victories in Florida and Michigan recognised despite both states having been stripped of their delegates by the Democratic National Committee because of an infringement of party rules.