Hillary Clinton made ground ahead of two pivotal White House nominating contests, as her Democratic foe Barack Obama today battled back from another uproar sparked by his fiery former pastor.
The rivals fought another day of pitched turf battles in midwestern Indiana and North Carolina on the east coast, which hold crucial primaries yesterday in a key twist in the end-game of their epic race.
Though Mr Obama leads in nominating contests, elected delegates and the all-important fundraising stakes, Ms Clinton appears to be closing on Mr Obama in both states after her campaign-saving victory in Pennsylvania last week.
"This race isn't decided yet, no matter what the Obama campaign would like you to think," Ms Clinton said in a fundraising message to supporters, as she hammered Mr Obama for rejecting a petrol tax holiday on the campaign trail.
The New York senator needs to capitalize on Mr Obama's recent struggles, as she tries to convince "superdelegates" - Democratic political leaders who effectively hold the nomination in their hands - that Mr Obama is unelectable.
A Howey-Gauge poll in Indiana released yesterday had Mr Obama up by just 47 to 45 percentage points, well within the margin of error, with eight percent of likely primary voters undecided.
Ms Clinton had trailed by 15 points in the same poll in February.
A Public Policy poll had Ms Clinton up eight points, weighting the average of recent polls in the state by RealClearPolitics.com in her favor, showing her up two points.
Indiana is a true battleground between the rivals, as it is packed with blue-collar white voters feeling the economic pinch who normally favour Ms Clinton, but much of it is blanketed by the media market in Mr Obama's hometown of Chicago.
In North Carolina, a state where Mr Obama hopes a large African-American population will help carry him to victory, he leads the RealClearPolitics average by 10 points, but a Survey USA poll yesterday had him up by only five.
Ms Clinton today drove to a petrol station with a sheet metal worker from South Bend, Indiana, to highlight high petrol prices.
She vowed to break the monopoly of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), cartel which produces 40 per cent of the world's oil.
"I am tired of OPEC setting the price and determining how much supply there is, by any definition that is a monopoly," Ms Clinton said.
"We are going to use every tool at our disposal as a nation to try to break that up."
With many Democrats fearing the divisive race between Mr Obama and Ms Clinton could harm their chances of beating Republican presumptive nominee John McCain in November, Ms Clinton also called for unity.
She said it would be the "height of political foolishness" for Democrats angered that their favorite did not win the nomination to back Mr McCain.