Press review - what US made of another moist-eyed moment

Hillary Clinton shed tears yesterday for a second time in this election campaign only 24 hours before heading into a coast-to-coast contest with Barack Obama that has split the Democratic party down the middle.

Yesterday both candidates embarked on a frantic final bout of campaigning along the East Coast states of America before a national primary where 22 states are holding elections – more than double the number for “Super Tuesday” in 2004.

But neither can win the nomination today. Party rules requiring delegates from each state to be awarded proportionately should mean that they get roughly equal shares of the 1,681 up for grabs.

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The significance of tonight’s results will instead be judged in terms of momentum for the tightest presidential fight for a generation, which threatens to grind on into March or even beyond.

Mrs Clinton has concentrated on the big states of California, New York and New Jersey, which account for about half the delegates at stake – and where she must win to stop Mr Obama gaining the advantage.

Yesterday she was reported to have welled up when she visited Connecticut. A lawyer who introduced Mrs Clinton to a crowd at the Yale Child Study Centre, where they both worked in the early 1970s, appeared to cry as he recalled her bell-bottomed trousers and his pride at what she had since achieved.

Mrs Clinton appeared to wipe her left eye before saying: “Well, I said I would not tear up. Already we’re not exactly on the path.”

A similar display of emotion is generally thought to have helped her to win the New Hampshire primary last month but her campaign is wary of such episodes jarring with a message that she, unlike Mr Obama, is battle-hardened to withstand an assault from the “Republican attack machine” at the general election in November.

On a visit to Missouri on Sunday Mrs Clinton said: I’ve already been through tough campaigns. This is going to be open season once again and we need someone with the experience and fortitude and knowhow to take whatever they throw our way.”

Mr Obama insisted that he is “accustomed to rough and tumble” before pointing out that he can offer a stark contrast to the policies of John McCain, the Republican front-runner.

Mr Obama’s wife, Michelle, at a rally in Los Angeles on Sunday, picked up on this theme, saying that her husband “is not naive – he doesn’t believe he can do it just with hope”. She added: “We live in Chicago, people! Don’t worry whether Barack is tough enough to handle Republicans.”

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