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Obama, Hillary all set for Wyoming caucuses
Published on Sat, Mar 08, 2008 at 22:19, Updated at Sat, Mar 08, 2008 in World section
Tags: Us Presidential Elections, Barack Obama , Casper
SMALL WONDER: A child holds a campaign sign before former president Bill Clinton speaks in Rock Springs.
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Casper: Barack Obama, thrown off stride by an aide's miscues and recent losses to Hillary Rodham Clinton, sought to regain lost momentum in Wyoming's caucuses on Saturday in an increasingly hostile fight for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Obama still holds the lead overall in national convention delegates, but Hillary revived her candidacy on Tuesday with victories in primaries in Texas, Ohio and smaller Rhode Island. Obama won Vermont.
Only 12 national convention delegates are at stake on Saturday in caucuses around the least populous US state, a small but critical prize in the close race for the party's nomination.
While Wyoming will not give either candidate much in terms of elected delegates, wins in that state and upcoming contests could help sway the 800 so-called superdelegates - senior party officials and lawmakers whose votes are not linked to state primary or caucus results.
Their votes will be needed to secure the nomination for either Obama or Hillary.
Heading into Wyoming, and the next showdown in Mississippi on Tuesday, Hillary sought to lower expectations, saying she believes Obama has a better chance of winning these contests.
"I said, 'Well you know what, I'm going to go to Wyoming anyway - I know it's an uphill climb, I'm aware of that," Hillary told an audience of more than 1,500 at a community college in Cheyenne, Wyoming on Friday. "But, you see, I am a fighter, and I believe it's worth fighting for your votes."
She set a similar tone while campaigning in Mississippi on Thursday night and Friday morning. She said a win for her in that state would be a heavy lift because of Obama's appeal there.
A total of 33 delegates are at stake in that race. The next major battle is in Pennsylvania on April 22. That contest offers the biggest prize left in the nomination race: 158 delegates.
But Obama was struggling to weather a controversy after his top foreign policy adviser, Samantha Power, called Hillary a "monster" in an interview with a Scottish newspaper.
Power, who resigned on Friday, also said in another foreign media interview that Obama may not be able to withdraw all US combat troops from Iraq within a year as he has promised on the campaign trail.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Harvard University professor tried to retract the snub at Hillary, and then apologised for it when it splashed across the headlines.
Obama's campaign said he decried the characterisation of the former first lady.
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