Going negative proved positive in comeback

WASHINGTON — In winning New Hampshire a few weeks ago, Hillary Rodham Clinton declared, "I found my own voice." But it was a much different voice in the closing days before Tuesday's voting that carried her to victory in Ohio and Texas -- and which now lets her make a strong case for extending the Democratic presidential race into the spring and possibly beyond.

Gone was the misty-eyed Clinton who scored points showing her human side. Gone was the gracious Clinton who, just two weeks ago, drew thunderous applause for expressing her pride in running against Barack Obama.

The new voice was angrier, sharper and far more negative toward Obama -- a voice that at one point bellowed at her rival, "Shame on you," as she pushed back against what she said was an unfair attack.

She ran a television ad suggesting that the youthful Obama could not be trusted if a world crisis forced the president from bed in the middle of the night. She questioned his ethics by repeatedly raising questions about his relationship with a disgraced supporter who, by the luck of the draw for Clinton, is the target of a federal corruption trial that began Monday in Chicago, where Obama lives.

And, highlighting a meeting between a top Obama aide and the Canadian government, she painted him as a typical, two-faced politician who told the voters one thing about his intention to change the North American Free Trade Agreement but with a wink and a nod assured a foreign government he would not follow through.

In each case, Clinton put Obama on defense in areas that have long been his biggest strengths. And in each case, she seemed to finally figure out how to make her brand of "experience" compete with a mantra of "change" that had spurred Obama's 11-contest winning streak going into Tuesday's voting and peeled away key components of Clinton's base.

Media exit polls showed that Clinton's new voice brought some of her old supporters back to her side: The New York senator won women, white men and lower-income voters in Ohio, and she won women, whites and Latinos in Texas.

And on Tuesday night, as a testament to that core constituency, she dedicated her Ohio win to "all those who have been counted out but refused to be knocked out."

Obama retains his delegate lead. But Obama's campaign had argued that a strong showing Tuesday would pressure Clinton to step aside. His campaign manager had predicted that Clinton would fail and that Obama's string of wins and his delegate advantage would be insurmountable.