US:INDIANA and North Carolina vote today in primaries that will shape the final weeks of the Democratic presidential campaign, as polls show both contests too close to call.
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigned in both states yesterday, exchanging jabs over what has become the hottest campaign issue - the high price of petrol.
Mrs Clinton wants to suspend the federal gasoline tax for the summer months, a move Mr Obama has dismissed as a gimmick that would have little impact on consumers' wallets.
Mrs Clinton is favoured to win in Indiana but she has stepped up her campaign in North Carolina too, where former president Bill Clinton appeared at nine events yesterday. If Mrs Clinton loses both states, her campaign will be over, but if she wins both, her chances of winning the Democratic nomination will multiply dramatically.
Mr Obama, who has endured the worst two weeks of his campaign so far, said yesterday that he expected both contests to be tight. "We're working as hard as we can and I desperately want every single vote here, in North Carolina and in Indiana," he said.
Soaring fuel prices have hit consumers hard in places like Brazil, a rural town of about 8,000 people about an hour away from Indianapolis in central Indiana's Wabash valley.
"It affects everybody here," said accountant Robert Hostetler. "A lot of people work in Indianapolis but they prefer to live here because they want a more family-centred, rural lifestyle.
"It's not just the cost of driving, it pushes up the cost of everything. My family runs a drugstore and they had their worst month ever in January. If people are cutting back on the things they need, like their drugs, you know they're hurting."
Mr Hostetler was among a couple of hundred people who came to see Chelsea Clinton campaigning on behalf of her mother outside Brazil's one-storey city hall.
One supporter had driven to the rally in a red pick-up truck on which he had written "Yes, I am a Redneck" and "I'm not bitter, I'm just sure", a reference to Mr Obama's description of small-town voters as bitter.
A local marching band played and Ms Clinton was introduced by Brittany Mason, Miss Indiana 2008, before launching into a detailed exposition of her mother's policies on education, health care and fuel prices.
Ms Clinton told her audience that her mother was not only the best candidate running this year but that she would be a better president than her father, former president Bill Clinton.
"I do think she'd be a better president largely because she's better prepared. I think she understands what it takes to govern effectively," she said.
Mr Hostetler was still undecided about how to vote, but he said he was leaning towards Mrs Clinton, despite the fact that he was not an admirer of her husband. "She seems to have a more conservative outlook. That's more in tune with the way we are here," he said.
On Sunday, when both candidates addressed 2,300 Democratic insiders at a fundraising dinner in Indianapolis, Mrs Clinton portrayed herself as a plucky underdog who is in tune with the concerns of average Americans.
In Pennsylvania, she compared herself to the film character Rocky but in Indiana, she took her cinematic cue from Hoosiers, the story of an Indiana basketball team that triumphed after being written off.
"There's one thing you know about me. I am no shrinking violet. I may get knocked down. But I will always get right back up, and I will never quit until the job is finished," she said.
"All we need is a president who will seize this moment, lift this nation and lead this world, a president who will go into the Oval Office on January 20,th 2009, and roll up her sleeves and get to work."
Mr Obama adopted a loftier approach, although he agreed about the need for affordable health care, better education and a sustainable energy policy. "All of this is possible, but it's just a list of policies until you decide that it's time to make Washington work.
"If you want to take another chance on the same kind of politics we've come to know in Washington, there are other candidates to choose from. But I still believe we need to fundamentally change Washington if we want change in America," he said.
"I believe that this election is bigger than me or John McCain or Hillary Clinton. It's bigger than the Democrats versus Republicans. It's about who we are as Americans."
Mr Obama received the warmest reception, bringing the audience to its feet a number of times, but Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean told the assembled Democrats that, regardless of which candidate they supported, they must all come together behind the eventual nominee.
"The truth is, the only thing that can stop us from winning the presidency is ourselves," he said.