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Pennsylvania a must win primary for Hillary

AFP, Philadelphia
Democrats in Pennsylvania were choosing between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in a bitterly-fought primary yesterday that Clinton must not only win, but win convincingly to rescue her trailing White House bid.
The New York senator is tipped for victory in late opinion polls, but many observers think it will take a double-digit triumph to stave off more calls for her to quit the epic Democratic nomination race.
She also needs a fresh burst of momentum ahead of the next round of contests in Indiana and North Carolina on May 6, which are followed quickly by the last six voting showdowns of the epic nominating battle into early June.
"I don't think the margin matters. I think a win is a win," Hillary Clinton told NBC television, asked if she might drop out if unable to win by a wide margin.
"We'll see what happens," she added. "The bottom line is we have a lot of contests yet to go. This is a really close race.”
A shock win by Obama would narrow Hillary Clinton's already unlikely route to the nomination, and likely snuff out her historic quest to be the first woman president
Polls opened in the economically pummelled northeastern state at 7:00 am (1100 GMT) and close at 8:00 pm (0000 GMT).
The former first lady's position is already perilous.
She trails Obama in total nominating contests won, pledged delegates apportioned in those showdowns, the popular vote, and the crucial muiti-million-dollar campaign financing race.
But her camp stresses electability, not electoral mathematics.
Victory here would bolster Clinton's claim that only she can solidify the Democratic powerbase, woo socially conservative workingclass voters, and prevail in crucial presidential battlegrounds.
Obama, who would be the first African-American US president, has spent millions of dollars in advertising in the state, and sharpened his attacks on Clinton, in an apparent bid to land a knockout that would allow him to set his sights on Republican John McCain.
But his remarks at a San Francisco fundraiser that some smaD town Americans were bitter" over the economic squeeze, and so clung to religion and guns, may have dampened his poll surge, which saw him cut Hillary Clinton's lead to a few points.
Latest opinion surveys appeared to show Clinton headed for victory, but her hopes of a campaign-altering blowout seemed uncertain.
She led Obama 52 percent to 42 percent in a Suffolk University survey. A Quinnipiac University poll had her up seven points, 51 -44 percent.
Ooama, who matched Clinton's intense sprint round the state's major media markets on Monday, however predicted in an interview with a Pittsburgh radio station that he would do surprisingly well.
"I am not predicting a win. 1 am predicting it is going to be close and we are going to do a lot better than people expect," he told KDKA.
Early Friday Obama stressed that he would prove as electable nationally as Clinton believes herself to be.
"If anybody thinks I'll lose California or New York in the general election, there's no chance of that happening," he told NBC.
I have no doubt that as the Democratic nominee, we will be able to mobilise Democrats in Ohio, in New York, in California, but also in Virginia, Colorado and a host of other states that Senator Qin ton would not be able to-put-into-play-Obama’ added.
Hillary Clinton is making her fervent case to ’Democratic "superdelegates,” the party officials who will now effectively crown the nominee, since neither candidate is likely to reach the 2,025 pledged delegates needed to win outright.
As the clock ticked down on the state campaign on Monday, Obama's camp accused Clinton of trying to scare Americans, after the release of a dark new campaign ad featuring al-Qaeda kingpin Osama bin Laden.
The 30-second broadcast does not mention Obama by name, but the Illinois senator’s spokesman Bill Burton fired off a robust response and brought up Clinton's vote in 2002 to authorise the Iraq war, which his boss opposed.
"It's ironic that she would borrow the president's tactics in her own campaign and invoke bin Laden to score political points," Burton said.
"We already have a president who plays the politics of fear, and we don’t need another."
Clinton kept up the crisis talk Tuesday, threatening to "obliterate" Iran if it launches a nuclear attack on Israel, in an interview with ABC News.
" I want the Iranians to know’ that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran, "Clinton said.