By Gary Barlow

Staff writer

Hillary Clinton’s decisive wins over Barack Obama in the Ohio and Texas Democratic presidential primaries March 4 did more than just stop Obama’s momentum in the race—they’ve boosted her back into a virtual tie with Obama in the race for support from Democratic voters nationwide.

A Newsweek poll conducted March 5-6 of Democrats and voters who said they lean Democratic put Obama and Clinton at 45 and 44 percent, with a 3.5 percent margin of error. Obama still leads among blacks, men, voters under 40 and college graduates; Clinton wins the majority of whites, women, voters over 60 and those who have a high-school education or less.

In a sign of possible trouble in November for Democrats, many of those polled said they would vote for the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, if their choice for the Democratic nomination doesn’t win.

Meanwhile, both Clinton and Obama set their sights on the next big prize, the Pennsylvania primary April 22. The prospects there appear to favor Clinton, who’s won most major state primaries this year and is endorsed by Gov. Ed Rendell, a popular former Philadelphia mayor, and current Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, one of the Keystone State’s most prominent black leaders.

Obama easily won the Wyoming caucuses March 8, which Clinton didn’t contest, and was expected to win the Mississippi primary March 11. Neither win in those relatively small states significantly adds to Obama’s delegate totals.

Obama continued to face fallout last week from controversy over his position on NAFTA and his Iraq War plans following flaps involving advisors close to him. In the Canadian capital of Ottawa opposition Liberal and New Democrat leaders demanded answers from Conservative Prime Minister Steven Harper’s government after the leak of a memo just prior to the Ohio primary that alleged that an Obama advisor assured Canadian officials that Obama’s campaign pledges to renegotiate NAFTA were nothing more than “political posturing.”

Harper’s chief of staff has been implicated in the leak, which may have cost Obama votes in Ohio. Obama denied allegations that he was telling voters one thing on NAFTA while privately holding different views.

A similar situation developed later in the week when an Obama advisor forced to resign from his campaign after calling Clinton a “monster” told the BBC that Obama’s pledge to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq in 16 months is a “best-case scenario” that Obama would revisit if elected president.

“He will, of course, not rely on some plan that he’s crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. senator,” said Samantha Power, an unpaid Obama advisor and Harvard professor. “He will rely upon a plan—an operational plan—that he pulls together in consultation with people who are on the ground to whom he doesn’t have daily access now, as a result of not being the president.”

Clinton seized on the statement, criticizing Obama.

“He has attacked me continuously for having no hard exit date, and now we learn he doesn’t have one—in fact he doesn’t have a plan at all,” Clinton told reporters while campaigning in Mississippi.

Obama campaign officials disputed Powers’ interpretation of his position, with campaign manager David Plouffe saying Obama’s plan to draw down approximately two brigades a month upon becoming president is “a rock solid commitment.”

Clinton also teased Democrats interested in seeing the two contenders come together to form a unified ticket. Speaking to voters in Mississippi March 7, Clinton said, “I’ve had people say, ‘Well, I wish I could vote for both of you.’ Well, that might be possible some day. But first I need your vote on Tuesday.”