Politics

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Blue-collar whites, women and older voters delivered for Hillary Rodham Clinton in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, a combination she hoped would give her a victory over Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama.

A survey of voters leaving the polls showed Clinton holding on to the groups at the core of her support, with some bright spots for Obama, too.

Pennsylvania was a must-win state for Clinton as she tries to overcome Obama's lead in the Democratic race.

Should she lose, it would be a fatal blow to her candidacy — a defeat so unexpected that it would sap her arguments to remain in the race. It would be the dawn of a Democratic era minus the Clintons as the dominant force.

Clinton has been in must-win territory already this year — in New Hampshire and then Ohio — and both times she survived.

Another big victory could give her new energy in the face of calls for her to drop from the race to clear Obama's path to the nomination. It would enable her to argue she's had victories in most of the country's largest states, give her a chance at overtaking Obama's lead in the popular vote and boost her prospects heading into the final stretch of the campaign.

Interviews with voters leaving the polls showed almost six in 10 were women and three in 10 were age 65 or over.

About two-thirds of whites without college degrees were supporting Clinton and her support was about the same among families earning less than $50,000 a year. About eight in 10 of the state's voters were white, higher than the six in 10 average so far in competitive Democratic primaries.

White men — a swing group in Democratic contests so far — were leaning toward Clinton by about 10 percentage points. More than six in 10 white women were behind her too.

Overall, about six in 10 whites were backing Clinton, while nine in 10 blacks were voting for Obama.

He was winning Philadelphia and its suburbs, while she was ahead in Pittsburgh, Erie and Scranton.

Underscoring the race's excitement, more than one in 10 voters Tuesday had registered with the state's Democratic party since the beginning of the year. And about six in 10 of them were voting for Obama.

Some voters had a hard time making up their minds. About a quarter of the day's voters reported having made their minds up within the past week, and about six in 10 of them backed Clinton.

There are seven states left to vote after Pennsylvania, and the candidates appear likely to split the spoils. Clinton is favored in West Virginia and Kentucky, while Obama is expected to take North Carolina, Oregon and South Dakota. Two states — Indiana and Montana — are competitive.

But Clinton has a tough reality to overcome to be nominated no matter what happens — Obama is practically assured to end the race with a lead in pledged delegates. Even in Pennsylvania, a Clinton victory was never bound to net her much in the delegate count since urban districts where Obama is strong have more delegates than those in rural areas where Clinton was likely to do well.

So winning the nomination will require Clinton to get unpledged superdelegates to look past the lead held by the candidate with a shot at becoming the first black president. Many of those superdelegates are elected officials who have constituents to answer to.

No matter what happens in the rest of the race, the odds are stacked high against Clinton winning the nomination. But Clinton has proven that she won't back down when she still has a shot, and a Pennsylvania win would give that to her.

Bill Clinton has already begun making a new argument for her candidacy — it's the Democratic Party rules that have kept her from becoming the nominee, he told a reporter on the eve of the vote.

The party rules split delegate support instead of allowing the winner of each state to take all the vote, as they do in the general election and in several states on the Republican side.

"We don't have a nominee here because the Democrats chose a system that prevents that result," the former president told The Washington Post.

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)