Make-or-break moment comes for Clinton in Ohio, Texas

BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhuanet) -- It seems to be a make or break moment for U.S. Demoncratic presential hopeful Hillary Clinton, since she needs to win both states of Ohio and Texas in Tuesday's primaries to continue her White House road, a view shared by many analysts.

Clinton's future becomes ever more contingent on her showing in Ohio and Texas as well as smaller states Rhode Island and Vermont, which also vote on Tuesday.

Barack Obama of Illinois has won 11 straight victories in contests dating back nearly a month. He has 1,378 pledged delegates and super delegates to Clinton's 1,269.

Neither candidate is close to the 2,025 needed to win the Democratic nomination.

In the March 4 primaries, Hillary had to halt rival Barack Obama's streak of 11 consecutive wins in their hard-fought duel to be the Democratic nominee in November's presidential election.

Former President Bill Clinton said in February if his wife wins Ohio and Texas, she'll go on to win the nomination.

"If Obama wins Texas and Ohio, it's game over and if If Clinton and Obama split Texas and Ohio, it's a new game," according to CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider.

As the two decisive states, Texas and Ohio get most attention from the candidates, their campaigns and the media, as 193 Democratic delegates are at stake in Texas and 141 in Ohio.

Texas is supposed to be Clinton country, because of its large Latino population, a group Clinton has done well with so far this primary season. But Texas also has a strong African-American population, and Obama has dominated the black vote so far this year.

In Ohio, Clinton has a slight lead, because of the large number of union and blue-collar workers and Catholic voters, groups that, along with women and senior citizens, are considered her base. But Clinton¡¦s once wide margin has dwindled, and according to some polls, disappeared.

Rhode Island, which has 21 Democratic delegates, has large Catholic and working-class population and Clinton is ahead in the polls there. Vermont has many upscale voters and liberals and few industrial workers and Obama leads in the polls there.

In a new Feb. 21-29 Columbus Dispatch poll of 2,308 registered Democrats, Clinton led Obama by 16 points ahead of Tuesday¡¦s showdown, 56-40. But the poll also showed that state Democrats might not hold their support for her past this week. Fifty-six percent of respondents told the Dispatch that Obama will win in November compared to 30 percent who said they think Clinton would.

A Feb. 29-March 2 Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll placed Obama 2 percentage points ahead of Clinton, a statistical tie in the poll of 761 likely voters, which had a 3.6-percentage point margin of error.

Republican front-runner John McCain, an Arizona senator, also can come close to clinching the nomination on Tuesday with expected wins over his last remaining major challenger, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

(Agencies)