8A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY BABY KANSAN
ELECTION
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23. 2008
Clinton wins Pennsylvania
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., celebrates with supporters after winning the Pennsylvania primary in Philadelphia Tuesday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON Hillary Rodham Clinton survived yet another day.
There will be little time for celebration, though. Time and money are running out.
Her win Tuesday in the important swing state of Pennsylvania was hard-fought. Barack Obama's well-funded effort to shut her down did not reach its goal of an upset.
The dynamics of the race are the same as they've been for more than two months. Obama is the front-runner, and California-based Democratic consultant Dan Newman points out that is more important the closer the campaign comes to the end of the primary season.
"He's content to essentially run out the clock with his narrow lead, while she needs something dramatic to happen," Newman said. "A one-run advantage in the first inning isn't a big deal, but a one-run lead in the ninth looms large."
Clinton now faces a dwindling number of contests, and she's at a steep financial disadvantage. Obama already is spending twice as much on ads airing in North Carolina and Indiana, the two states that come up next, with primaries on May 6. Clinton will have to either persuade donors to give her more money to sustain
her long-shot bid or float herself another multimillion-dollar loan
In Pennsylvania, Clinton won with the support of whites, women and older voters, according to exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks.
Underscoring the race's excitement, more than one in 10 voters Tuesday had registered with the state's Democratic party since the beginning of the year. And about six in 10 of them were voting for Obama. About a quarter of the day's voters reported having decided within the past week, and about six in 10 of them backed Clinton.
She found reason for optimism in the victory that came even though Obama outspent her 3-to1 in the state.
"He broke every spending record in this state trying to knock us out of this race." Clinton told her cheering supporters. "Well, the people of Pennsylvania had other ideas tonight."
will win. Clinton dispatched one of her top state organizers, California and Texas veteran Ace Smith, to North Carolina in an effort to get every vote she can. Obama's also expected to win Oregon and South Dakota.
Of the states left, the biggest prize is North Carolina, a state that both sides are predicting Obama
So where can she look for victory? West Virginia and Kentucky are likely Clinton wins, but they offer fewer than 100 delegates combined. She also has a chance in Guam, Puerto Rico, Montana and Indiana. But none of them is likely to give her a big enough margin to put her over Obama.
To win, she needs to convince voters that Obama is not electable in November even though he's ahead in the delegate race.
She needs a big influx of cash. She needs a shocking change of fortune.
NATIONAL
Increasing oil costs burden drivers
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The price board of a Chevron gas station is shown in San Francisco, Monday. Rising gasoline prices tightened the squeeze on drivers Monday, jumping to an average $3.50 a gallon at filling stations across the country.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK - Cabbies here complain their take-home pay is thinner than it used to be. Trucking companies across the country are making drivers slow down to conserve fuel. Filling station owners plead that the skyrocketing prices aren't their fault.
"To get to the doctors and all that, it's an awful lot of money," said Carol Licata, a 75-year-old retiree from Arnold, Pa., who said a larger portion of her fixed income is now going toward gas.
And the rest of us? With gas prices now averaging $3.50 a gallon nationwide, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service, more and more Americans who have to drive are weighing the need for each and every trip.
And everyone, it seems, is more than willing to join in the gripping.
"Bottom line, we can't afford it no more, man. It's too much," Bak Zoumane said as he filled up his yellow cab as a BP station in midtown New York.
But this year prices are rising even faster than normal, experts say, because of the massive jump
Those soaring prices are putting added strain on refiners and filling station operators, which are struggling to pass the higher feedstock costs onto consumers. So even as drivers pay more, retailers _ the most public face of the oil business are getting increasingly squeezed.
in benchmark crude prices, which spiked to a record $117.76 a barrel Monday before settling a record settlement price of $117.48.
"The farther you get from the wellhead, the greater the misery," said Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J. "There's a lot of stations across the country that are literally on the brink of bankruptcy."
Samer Katib, the manager of a Marathon station in Chicago, said business has fallen at least 30 percent this year because customers are cutting back on driving and only using their cars when absolutely necessary.
"It's just go to your work and go home," he said of people's driving habits these days, adding that customers no longer stop in for profit-fattening drinks like they used to.
Other businesses are getting pinched as well.
Mitch Goldstone, who owns a photo-scanning shop in Irvine, Calif., said he began giving out gas cards Monday to encourage people to shop after noticing a sharp decline in customer traffic something he attributed to soaring gas prices.
"It's a mess here," Goldstone said. "People just are not shopping and everyone's trying to figure out a way to get people back in their cars."
AAA figures show California has higher prices than anywhere in the country, with regular now selling for an average of $3.86 a gallon.
Diesel prices are rising even higher than gasoline, putting pressure on trucking and other shipping companies that use the fuel to transport goods around the country.
ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said fuel has now surpassed labor as the trucking industry's biggest cost, prompting some companies to install devices that prevent drivers from speeding. Companies are also shelling out for auxiliary power units and offering bonuses to drivers who cut down on idling and operate their trucks more efficiently.
"Every little bit helps," he said.
9