Clinton comeback wins key votes

By Gavin Hewitt
BBC News, Columbus, Ohio

Hillary Clinton's supporters have been fighting hard in Ohio

The mood in the Clinton camp changed three days ago.

They had detected a shift among the voters.

So early on Tuesday evening, four hours before the polls closed, Terry McAuliffe, Senator Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, predicted they would win three states.

In Texas, those who made up their minds in the past three days overwhelmingly went for Mrs Clinton.

So what made the difference? Firstly the economy. It is the issue that matters most to voters.

In a state like Ohio, the middle class is anxious. Mrs Clinton stressed her experience and offered to help those who got into debt. She had specific proposals aimed at those suffering from the American downturn.

Secondly, the Clinton camp believe that the media is questioning Barack Obama more closely.

Obama camp keep faith

Mrs Clinton had, in effect, challenged the press to be sceptical of Mr Obama's promises by saying his candidacy was "unexamined".

In the past week, questions have been raised about whether Mr Obama was entirely consistent about his opposition to Nafta, the North American free trade agreement.

Thirdly, Mrs Clinton believes that her attack ad asking who would be more trusted to deal with a crisis when the phone rings at 3am in the White House struck home.

It was a controversial message. The commercial showed children asleep and asked who they would be safer with.

It was hardball politics, but the Clinton team believe that it forced voters in Texas to imagine how Mr Obama would deal with a world crisis.

'Fighters'

There was another reason behind Mrs Clinton's comeback.

The Clintons are legendary fighters when their backs are against the wall.

Mrs Clinton never flagged when the questions were raised as to whether she could survive beyond Tuesday.

Mrs Clinton's wins on Tuesday ended a month of defeats

Her message became more focused, more concise.

Bill Clinton worked Texas tirelessly, visiting more than seven venues in one day.

Even as voters were turning out, he was driving up the I-35 interstate highway going from polling station to polling station, targeting Hispanic voters.

In the end, Mrs Clinton won 63% of Hispanic voters in Texas.

It was a reminder that the Clintons are a formidable team.

They are political fighters, battle-hardened from years in the White House.

They understand the long fight.

Furthermore, they have the best contacts book in the Democratic Party.

I watched over the weekend as Bill Clinton met local officials, people he had known for over 20 years.

No knock-out

So the race moves on to Pennsylvania.

This, too, is Clinton country.

Bill Clinton has strong roots there, and many of the issues that mattered in Ohio, like the collapse of the housing market and fears about jobs, echo in Pennsylvania too.

The Clinton campaign believes this battle with Barack Obama will now go all the way to the convention in August.

Most likely it will be settled by the super-delegates, most of whom are elected officials in the party.

So far a majority of them are going for Hillary Clinton.

Not surprisingly, the Clinton team say the momentum is with them.

In truth, this race is nail-bitingly close, but Barack Obama will now have to show how he reacts to a setback.

In recent weeks, he has seemed at ease as a front-runner.

His staff hoped on Tuesday that they would deliver the knock-out blow.

It did not happen and this absorbing battle between two historic candidates is set to run for months yet.