Major Hillary-Obama Clashes Loom
BY JOHN TOSCANO

About six weeks ago, Illinois Senator Barack Obama sprung his first surprise of the presidential primary season with a solid victory in the Iowa caucuses that left a dazed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton languishing in third place.

The solid whacking delivered by Obama in Iowa pointed him toward New Hampshire, where Clinton held a comfortable lead in the polls. But the momentum from his Iowa victory caused Clinton's lead in the polls to disappear abruptly, and the prospect of a second whipping in less than a week began to cause some concern in the Clinton camp.

However, the now famous "did she or didn't she shed a tear" episode may or may not have provided the spark that gave the former First Lady a rebounding victory in the Granite State, and Obama's chance of scoring a second solid thumping disappeared.

The second opportunity Obama had to deal a serious blow to Clinton's presidential hopes came on Super Tuesday. Clinton's strategy of winning the state with high numbers of delegates, such as New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, was working out fine.

For his part, Obama continued nibbling away at the smaller states, but as the night wore on, he suddenly had close to a dozen in his win column including a major surprise when he over took Clinton in Missouri.

By this time, Obama had nearly double the number of winning states than Clinton did, and there was the perception that he was leaving his opponent in the dust. However, there was still one major prize- California- to be decided. As it turned out, it became a "must win" for Clinton because if Obama was able to add it to the tidy collection he had managed to amass, Super Tuesday would turn out to be a major victory for Obama and a disastrous loss for Clinton.

Finally, the almost interminably long day ended with California in Clinton's column, and Obama's chance of gaining a major lead on the one-time inevitable winner had slipped from his grasp again.

However, a third such opportunity appears to have developed for Obama in just a little more than a week since the Super Tuesday excitement ended.

That hectic day concluded with everyone feeling that the tough battle for the Democratic nomination would wind down with neither Clinton or Obama scoring a decisive, clear victory and it would finally be settled at the convention this summer.

After February 5, the primary/caucus schedule called for several relatively minor prizes to be dealt out. These caused little excitement and didn't call for as much hand-to-hand combat as did the contests that began in early January in Iowa.

As it turns out, however, Obama picked off the first four of these primary or caucuses in Louisiana, Washington state, Maine and Nebraska.

Yesterday, three other similar opportunities presented themselves in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. Obama is the favorite to take these, which would give him a winning streak of seven.

He virtually erased the small delegate lead Clinton had coming out of Super Tuesday. Should he win yesterday's contests, he will increase that lead and put Clinton in an uncomfortable position. In fact, instead of the even race it was when Super Tuesday ended, it appears Obama has become the frontrunner and favorite and Clinton the pursuer and underdog.

The next big tests are scheduled for next Tuesday in Wisconsin and Hawaii, followed by a major confrontation two weeks after that on March 4, when Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island will offer a major prize of 534 delegates.

In a period of less than a month, there's an opportunity for Obama once again to deal Clinton a crippling blow. He has shown an ability to whittle down leads that Clinton starts out with, in this case in Texas and Ohio, so she'll have her work cut out for her.

Recently, Obama has also shown an ability to raise large sums of cash, as he did in January when he took in contributions of about $30 million. At about the same time, Clinton had to make herself a loan of $5 million.

As in the instances when Clinton fought off Obama in New Hampshire and California, she may have to summon that same extra effort to keep her dream alive.