In the name of the party

Last Modified: 07 May 2008
By: Felicity Spector

If not the end, this surely should be the beginning of the end.

A decisive victory for Barack Obama in North Carolina and the closest of runs in Indiana, surely this is the moment Hillary Clinton must decide to call it a day.

Even former presidential candidate George McGovern, just the latest party elder, is urging her to drop out.

But there's no talk of surrender from the Clinton campaign, "It's full speed on to the White House", she proclaimed last night.

She's already heading for West Virginia, ahead of next week's primary there and her campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe continued the theme, "Senator Clinton has anted up and is fighting on".

But the figures just don't add up. Not in terms of pledged delegates, nor the political will for this contest to endlessly drag on.

This should have been a real chance for Clinton to turn around her chances.

How much goodwill do the Clintons have collectively left to burn?

In a month when Obama was on the defensive as never before, struggling to overcome the Reverend Wright affair and seemingly unable to shake off that aura of elitism she seemed feisty, invigorated, determined. He was tired, unfocussed and unable to broaden his appeal.

But instead it's Obama who has weathered the storm, proving that he can survive a drubbing by his opponent and the press.

And what a bounce back. A 14 point lead in North Carolina and some important demographic inroads too.

Managing to win districts with a majority Hispanic community, those with large shares of older voters, even some suburbs that were 90 per cent white. Or as the pollsters' lingo has it, the "emptying nests" and the "moneyed 'burbs".

And it has emerged that in the last month alone, Clinton has been forced to lend almost six and a half million dollars to her campaign to keep it going this far.

Obama's one problem does remain the race issue. The local newspaper in Raleigh points out that two thirds of the white vote in North Carolina went to Clinton and more worryingly, most of them told exit pollsters they wouldn't support Obama if he were the nominee in November.

Which he will now surely be.

There is almost no way Clinton can make up the numbers, especially as the super delegates continue to float Obama's way. So Obama's strategy is clear: it's time for his rival to bow out, while she can do it gracefully.

You could hear it in the tone of his victory speech last night: "This fall, we intend to march forward as one Democratic Party, united by a common vision for this country." And rumour has it that there are some 40 super delegates in Obama's camp that he hasn't publicly declared. After last night's results there can only be more Democratic grandees echoing George McGovern's appeal.

"How much goodwill do the Clintons have collectively left to burn?" asks ABC.

Clinton might be determined to carry on and in theory she could take this all the way, but if the battle continues to tear the party apart might the Democrats find themselves consigned to permanent opposition?