A bloodied Hillary Clinton is accusing Barack Obama of seeking to force her out of the ring before the fight for the Democratic nomination is over.

She has taken to comparing herself to Rocky Balboa. Speaking yesterday in Philadelphia, where the films about the underdog boxer are set, she said: “I know what it means to get knocked down. But I’ve never stayed down, and I never will. Let me tell you something – when it comes to finishing the fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common. I never quit. I never give up.”

Sylvester Stallone, the actor who played Rocky, has backed John McCain. And, it may be noted, the film ends with Rocky’s defeat to Apollo Creed, a black man.

Mrs Clinton’s point yesterday was that her campaign will not be throwing in the towel. “Just as it’s getting time to vote here in Pennsylvania,” she said, “Senator Obama says he’s getting tired of it. His supporters say they want it to end.”

A race like a crackpot Dynasty

The contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton matches any fiction

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Mr Obama described the contest recently as a “good movie that runs about half an hour too long” or even a “Bataan death march”. Some of his leading backers, including Senator Patrick Leahy, have been explicit in calling for Mrs Clinton to halt a battle that threatens to damage Democrat prospects of retaking the White House.

The former First Lady said in a North Carolina interview this week: “I didn’t understand why Senator Obama and some of his supporters wanted to prevent you and other states from actually being able to vote.” Yesterday Mr Obama appeared to row back on his supporters’ comments, saying that Mrs Clinton had “certainly earned the right to stay in the race for as long as she wants”.

She knows, however, that her path to victory is becoming narrower by the day. It emerged yesterday that Mr Obama’s caucus victories in Texas meant that he had secured more delegates than Mrs Clinton in a state where she won last month’s primary.

He has an almost insurmountable lead among elected delegates and Mrs Clinton’s remaining hopes rely on her winning the April 22 Pennsylvania primary and gaining fresh momentum for the other remaining nine contests.

Aides argue that this would pile pressure on the party leadership to overturn a ban on delegates from Florida and Michigan – where she won the bulk of votes – being seated at the Democratic convention.

Even then she would need to persuade a large majority of uncommitted super-delegates to tip the balance of the race her way. Mrs Clinton’s advantage among this group has shrunk significantly over recent weeks and a poll yesterday showed her double-digit lead in Pennsylvania falling to only five points. Even one of the super-delegates supporting her, Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver, predicted yesterday that “Barack Obama is going to be the next president”.

An analysis of the Democratic Party’s 169-member credentials committee yesterday suggested that Mrs Clinton was unlikely to have enough support to get the Florida and Michigan delegations reinstated.

Yesterday she attempted some April Fool’s Day humour by challenging Mr Obama to settle the nomination contest with a “bowl-off”. He has attributed a lamentable performance at a bowling alley in Pennsylvania over the weekend to drinking too much beer. “It’s time for his campaign to get out of the gutter,” Mrs Clinton said yesterday, “for all of the pins to be counted.”

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