INDIANAPOLIS — A day after Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton defeated Sen. Barack Obama in the Pennsylvania primary, the epic battle for the Democratic presidential nomination lurched onward to Indiana, with new squabbling Wednesday over who is best equipped to win the general election.
Facing steep odds against catching Obama in the delegate count, Clinton argued that her victories in big industrial swing states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio showed that she could wage a more competitive fight in November against Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.
"We're going to have a vigorous election in the fall. . . . And what you have to ask yourself is who you believe would be the better nominee to go toe to toe against John McCain," the New York senator told supporters outside the American Legion national headquarters in Indianapolis.
Obama rejected that reasoning, saying he still led in the delegate count, the number of states won, and -- by all measures other than the Clinton campaign's -- the popular vote. The Illinois senator also lamented the prolonged nomination fight, saying he agreed with those who fear it is damaging the party.
"There's no doubt that if we have additional time to bring the Democratic Party together and focus on the Republican nominee, then we'd be stronger for it in the fall," Obama told reporters after a rally in New Albany, Ind. "And that's why we'd like to wrap up this campaign as quickly as possible."
The Democratic rivals each campaigned Wednesday in Indiana, which along with North Carolina will hold its primary May 6. But their main audience was a few hundred superdelegates, the party and elected officials who likely will be forced to break the Democratic stalemate.
It takes 2,024 delegates to win the nomination, but neither candidate can capture that many in the final contests over the next six weeks.
Clinton carried Pennsylvania by a margin of just over 9 percentage points but barely shaved Obama's lead in delegates to the Democratic National Convention. She cut his lead from 139 to 131, according to the Associated Press.
Polling of Pennsylvania voters Tuesday offered new evidence that Obama and Clinton have fractured the Democratic Party into two distinct coalitions. Among those in Obama's corner: black, upscale, better-educated and younger voters. In Clinton's: white, female, lower-income, less-educated and older voters.
