With Sen. Barack Obama looking to sweep tomorrow's Potomac primaries, Sen. Hillary Clinton unleashed powerful allies in Maryland yesterday for a strategic push aimed at traditional Democratic groups who have helped her in other states.
Former President Bill Clinton crisscrossed Maryland, calling his wife "the best change-maker I ever saw" during a speech at the Charlestown Retirement Community in Catonsville. Daughter Chelsea Clinton made appearances in Baltimore's Belvedere Square shopping district and later went to the University of Maryland, College Park.
The vigorous activity - intended to keep Clinton competitive in the hunt for delegates even if she loses the popular vote in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia - illustrated the importance of tomorrow's regional contests in the presidential race.
If Obama wins all three Democratic primaries, he would continue momentum gained over the weekend, when he carried primaries and caucuses in Nebraska, Washington, Louisiana and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The surge was continuing yesterday, as Obama won the Maine caucuses by a healthy margin. "Seems like everywhere we go, the longer we are in this race, the stronger we get," Obama said in an interview aired last night on CBS' 60 Minutes.
On the Republican side, Arizona Sen. John McCain hopes to further solidify his front-runner status by defeating former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
While the Mid-Atlantic states appear unlikely to provide the firewall that Clinton sorely needs, the campaign competed aggressively across the region yesterday.
Bill Clinton told a crowd of 300 at the retirement community that his wife's quarter-century of experience in health care, education and other areas should not be discounted.
"You can believe that we just have to try something new, and that everybody who made good things happen and stopped bad things from happening in the last 10 or 15 years is somehow disabled from being a part of that change," he said. "Or you can believe America is a place of constant new beginnings, where you need people who know how to make change to have it happen."
In College Park, Chelsea Clinton was asked about the Obama surge and responded that she was "really proud of the broad base of support that my mom also has inspired."
