``The tide has turned’’, so said Hillary Clinton during her victory speech last night in Philadelphia, hardly the city of brotherly love, as she and her Democratic rival battled like gladiators for 154 delegates in Pennsylvania.
        The New York senator took 54 percent of the vote with 75 percent of votes counted, according to The Associated Press, making life all the more difficult for Barack Obama, who can’t seem to put away his pesky rival, as attention now turns to primary clashes in Indiana and North Carolina on May 6th.
        Clinton's win in the Keystone state wasn't a surprise. It was only a matter of how decisive her victory. And it was a thumping; the Illinois senator will have a hard time spinning this as a moral victory, or make the case he closed the gap in a state which played to his rivals strengths.
        Exit polls reported Clinton winning 6-of-10 white voters, two-out-of-three white voters earning $50,000 or less; and two-out-three-white voters without college degrees, crucial voting blocs needed to win the White House that can’t be overlooked, considering these are the so-called ``Reagan Democrats’’ who, according to the most recent  Quinnipiac poll backed Clinton 55 to 40 percent in working-class Pennsylvania.
            With the economy heading toward a recession (nine out of 10 in the country polled, in fact, think we’re already there); and having spanked her rival in New York, California, Texas, Ohio, and now Pennsylvania-- Clinton might be making her best case yet to the large pool of undecided superdelgates that she is better positioned than her Democratic rival to win the November election against John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.
        But it’s almost as if Team Clinton is down 35-7 at the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter, she just put a quick score on the board, but the clock is working against her and she only has one timeout to stop the clock.
        Unquestionably, it’s going to take more than a ``Hail Mary’’ or a Terry Bradshaw to Franco Harris ``Immaculate Reception’’ for Clinton to deny Obama the nomination; it will take two Hail Mary’s, an onside kick, and a roughing- the-passer call against Obama, such as calling his opponent a monster or a win-anything-do-anything Democrat.
        Obama has to hope the worst is behind him; the worst being Rev. Jeremiah Wright's inflammatory comments, being linked with a terrorist group, calling mainstream Democrats ``bitter’’; and getting into a testy exchange with ABC moderators George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson over character issues during the last Democratic debate.
        Obama needs to remind voters he’s not bitter about losing in Pennsylvania; and is willing to rise above the character assaults; and continue to focus on his message and talk about the issues that has put him in such a commanding delegate lead over his Democratic rival: which is: to return a Democrat to the White House, change course in a failed policy in Iraq, revolutionize our health-care system, and to keep this country from sinking into a depression.
        And while Clinton flaunts herself as being the candidate of the blue-collar voters or the ``lunch- pale Democrats’’ as a CNN analyst phrased it-Obama should also remind voters that while he has indeed outraised his rival 3-to-1 in campaign contributions; the big reason why is because of the support he’s received from small contributions or ``lunch-pale Democrats’’, not from voters with deep wallets, like Clinton and McCain have. 
         The Campaign Finance Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit institute affiliated with The George Washington University, reports that since January 2007, Obama has raised $101 million from donations of $200 or less. Clinton, by comparison, has raised the bulk of her war-chest from larger contributions ($82 million to be exact), while only taking in $44 million totaling $200 or less.
        The way that Obama’s character has been chopped to bits over the last two weeks with so much negative publicity swirling around him, it's hard to imagine superdelagates abandoning Obama, and throwing their support behind Clinston. 
        A more likely scenario is the thrust of the campaign will return to hot-button substantive issues (like the housing crisis, the economy, foreign policy); Obama’s rock- star status be placed on the front burner with the likes of small town hero John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen (Born in the USA ) rallying to his defense, while less attention will be devoted to what kind of lapel pin is being worn on a candidates jacket, issues that seem to have sidestepped Stephanopoulos and Gibson.
-Bill Lucey
billlucey@bellsouth.net