'Full speed to the White House'

INDIANAPOLIS – It was (almost) a premature victory speech for Hillary Clinton.\nBefore any of the networks or major newspapers had called the Indiana race, Clinton declared her triumph in the Hoosier state to a cheering, raucous crowd in the Egyptian Room at the Murat Centre Tuesday night. With former President Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton standing behind her and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh at her side, the New York senator proclaimed that her win in Indiana was a mandate for her to carry on in the race.\n“We’ve come from behind, we’ve broken the tie, and now it’s full speed to the White House,” Clinton said.\nLast month, her opponent Barack Obama told a Muncie, Ind., crowd that the Hoosier state would be a “tie breaker” for the major remaining primaries.\nClinton promised to stay in the race through West Virginia and Kentucky, both states where she holds a significant lead in the polls. West Virginia Democrats vote May 13 and Kentucky votes May 20.\nBut in reality, Clinton’s Indiana victory was by the slimmest of margins. It was not until early Wednesday morning, several hours after the crowds cleared out of the Murat Theatre, that most media outlets called the state for Clinton. In the end, she took the state by some 14,000 votes, or about one-and-a-half percent, CNN reported Wednesday afternoon. She lost in Monroe County by 32 percentage points. \nAnd after Obama’s 14-point win in North Carolina, the Illinois senator actually came out on top in Tuesday’s contests. Clinton’s failure to rack up a significant margin in the Hoosier state makes it harder for her to argue that she deserves the Democratic nomination, said Andy Downs, the director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.\n“It is even more likely now that Sen. Obama now is going to be the nominee,” Downs said.\nAn initial head start for Clinton in Indiana quickly led into a tight race well into the night. However, after the pivotal count of Lake County votes in northwest Indiana, the former First Lady emerged as the winner just after 1 a.m. Initial returns from the Chicago-influenced county indicated that Obama was poised to win there by a wide enough margin to swing the \nelection in the Illinois senator’s favor. However, the final tally gave him only an 11-point win. This was likely due to the strong support Clinton enjoys among union workers, Downs said.\nThe victory will net Clinton four delegates in the race against Obama, according to CNN projections. The Indiana primary had 72 delegates at stake. However, Obama netted 16 delegates from his North Carolina win, leaving him about 183 delegates shy of the 2,025 he needs to clinch the nomination. Clinton has 1,686, according to CNN.\nDespite Obama’s loss in Indiana, North Carolina still gave a decisive win to the candidate early in the evening, with Obama snagging 56 percent of the state’s vote.\nHoosiers hit the polls Tuesday in massive numbers. The Democratic presidential race garnered a combined 1.3 million votes in Indiana – nearly as many as President George W. Bush received in the 2004 general election. \nIn Monroe County, about 33,000 voters turned out – a 58 percent increase from the 2004 primary. Nearly a third of ballots were cast in early or absentee voting. About 300,000 Hoosiers voted for John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.\nDespite Obama’s resounding victory on the IU campus, IU Students for Hillary Clinton said they believed Obama’s appeal to students was not based on educated choices.\n“The problem is, Obama is increasing voter turnout but not increasing civic engagement,” said freshman Sarah Robinson.\nRobinson’s sister Laura, also an IU freshman, said she was “constantly amazed at how easy it is to talk someone out of voting for Obama.”