Not surprisingly, Hillary Clinton was pretty happy with her win last night:
PHILADELPHIA — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won the Pennsylvania primary decisively on Tuesday night, pulling in a victory that flirted with double-digits and bolstered her case for staying in the nominating contest.
Sen. Barack Obama downplayed a defeat that was unlikely to slash his delegate lead. Yet by giving Clinton a strong edge, Pennsylvania did nothing to clarify a Democratic race that has stretched on for nearly four months and sharply divided the party.
Clinton signaled that, despite her dramatic financial disadvantage, she had no intention of getting out before the last voting on June 3.
“It’s a long road to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and it runs right through the heart of Pennsylvania,” Clinton said at a raucous post-campaign rally in Philadelphia. After a six-week campaign in the Keystone State, Clinton said: “You listened, and today, you chose.”
“Some people counted me out, and said to drop out. But the American people don’t quit and they deserve a president who doesn’t quit either,” Clinton said.
Describing the victory as “deeply personal,” Clinton depicted once again her family history in Pennsylvania — the story of her grandfather, and her father, a lace mill worker from Scranton, which she has folded into her biography as evidence that she will be a populist fighter.
I’ve lost count already, but I think this makes Pennsylvania Hillary’s fourth home state. I can’t wait until she uncovers the long-lost Uncle from Evansville, Indiana.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama tried his best to stay on message despite last night’s loss:
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Sen. Barack Obama congratulated Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on her win in Pennsylvania tonight, but gave himself some credit for what he described as a better-than-expected outcome.
“There were a lot of folks who didn’t think we could make this a race when it started. They thought we were going to be blown out,” Obama told an enthusiastic crowd of around 7,000, revved up by the candidate’s warm-up act, singer and Hoosier native John Cougar Mellencamp.
“But we worked hard … and now, six weeks later, we closed the gap,” Obama said. “We rallied people of every age and race and background to the cause. And whether they were inspired for the first time or for the first time in a long time, we registered a record number of voters, and it is those new voters who will lead our party to victory in November.”
Obama said Clinton’s name only once in his speech — at the beginning, in his remarks about the Pennsylvania primary. The crowd booed, and Obama hushed them. “No, no,” he said. “She ran a terrific race.” But he placed the burden of the nomination squarely in the hands of this crucial May 6 state. “Now it’s up to you, Indiana,” Obama said. “You can decide whether we’re going to travel the same worn path, or whether we chart a new course that offers real hope for the future.”
In saying this, of course, Obama is admitted that his anticipated big victory in North Carolina, which votes on the same day as Indiana, isn’t going to matter nearly as much to where this campaign heads next.
