| What's Next In The Presidential Race
By Mark Nickolas, Managing Editor
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As has happened so often during this primary season, we head into the final weekend before a crucial primary without a clear understanding of where things stand. While nearly all recent polls show Hillary Clinton with a 2 to 5 point lead, the one pollster that has been very accurate this year (SurveyUSA) continues to show Clinton up 14.
Clinton has to hope that SurveyUSA is correct once again since anything less than a strong double-digit victory will be viewed as a loss since Clinton continues to watch Barack Obama widen his overall 140+ delegate lead with just 10 contests to go. Many observers point to Clinton's 10-point victory in Ohio as a minimally acceptable threshold performance in Pennsylvania, a state where she lead by more than 20 points only a month ago.
After Tuesday's primary, the next targets will be North Carolina and Indiana on May 6th. So far, Obama has dominated polls in North Carolina (leading by 15-20) and two polls last week (LA Times and SurveyUSA) gave Obama a 5-point lead in Indiana, reversing Clinton's double-digit lead.
Meanwhile, national polls are all over the map. Daily tracking polls by Gallup and Rasmussen give Obama a 3 to 7 point lead, while Newsweek shows Obama with a staggering 19-point lead, a poll which was taken late this week.
Regardless of the outcome in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Clinton's biggest problems remain her financial situation and the continual drop of superdelegates to Obama. Things remain very bleak for Clinton and she'll probably need a victory on Tuesday that is closer to 20 points to keep hope alive.
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