US:Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton returned to campaigning in Texas yesterday after a televised debate failed to change the dynamic of a Democratic race that is moving powerfully in Mr Obama's direction.
For most of the 90-minute exchange at the University of Texas in Austin, the candidates avoided direct attacks on one another, prodding gently at their few policy differences but avoiding questions of character.
Mrs Clinton's sharpest attack, on Mr Obama's use of lines he borrowed from Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, fell flat as the audience booed her attempt to make it an issue of credibility.
"Lifting whole passages from someone else's speeches is not change you can believe in, it's change you can Xerox," she said.
Mr Obama dismissed the charge as silly, insisting that Mr Patrick was a friend who suggested he use the disputed lines and the audience's jeers turned to cheers as he clambered up the moral high ground.
"What we shouldn't be spending time doing is tearing each other down. We should be spending time lifting the country up," he said.
The candidates disagreed about healthcare reform, with Mrs Clinton claiming that by not insisting that everyone must have health insurance, Mr Obama would leave up to 15 million Americans uninsured.
They agreed on the need for comprehensive immigration reform. Mrs Clinton said she would introduce a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants within 100 days of entering the White House.
Her best moment came at the end of the debate, when the candidates were asked to describe the moment of crisis in their lives that had tested them the most.
"Well, I think everybody here knows I've lived through some crises and some challenging moments in my life," she said, in an apparent reference to the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
She said the challenges she faced were insignificant in comparison with the struggles of millions of Americans, adding that "whatever happens in this contest", she and Mr Obama would be fine.
"I am honoured to be here with Barack Obama. I am absolutely honoured," she said to applause. "Whatever happens, we're going to be fine. You know, we have strong support from our families and our friends. I just hope that we'll be able to say the same thing about the American people, and that's what this election should be about."
The audience gave Mrs Clinton a standing ovation but some of those who heard her thought there was a wistful, almost valedictory tone to her remarks.
Texas and Ohio vote on March 4th in contests that former president Bill Clinton said his wife must win if she is to remain in the race. She has seen huge poll leads melt away in both states and she is now running level with Mr Obama in Texas and just seven points ahead in Ohio.
The Clinton campaign's chief strategist, Mark Penn, said after Thursday's debate that Mrs Clinton could still rebound next month after 11 consecutive defeats in February.
"We always expected February to be a really rough period," he said. "Now we have two weeks, two contests and a good campaign organisation."
Mr Penn was one of a number of consultants who were paid a total of $5 million in January for their work on the Clinton campaign, money some donors now complain was badly spent. According to the campaign's finance report, Mrs Clinton spent $100,000 on platters of food ahead of the Iowa caucuses and $25,000 for rooms at the luxury Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas.
Mr Obama spent more than Mrs Clinton on media, polling and consulting in January, but he has also raised more, much of it from small donors on the internet.
Mr Obama has been drawing huge crowds across Texas this week and the queue outside an event in Dallas on Wednesday was so long that the Secret Service ordered police to stop screening for weapons an hour before it began.
Dallas deputy police chief TW Lawrence said that the 17,000 who came to the Reunion Arena looked like a "friendly crowd".