It does seem that the race for the Democrat nomination for presidency will go down to the wire. Hillary Clinton has won the Pennsylvania primary by a significant 10-point margin over her rival, Barack Obama. While Clinton still trails Obama in the popular vote and the delegate count, her victory in Pennsylvania gives her reason to remain in the race for the nomination. It is six weeks since the last primary and in the weeks since, Clinton has covered significant ground. Her win, however, is not large enough at this point to be interpreted as signalling a turning tide or a dramatic reversal of fortune but it suggests that her perseverance is paying off. The margin of her win is not perhaps sufficient to fundamentally alter the dynamics of the race – it is still advantage Obama and he looks very likely to pick up eventually the Democrat nomination – but the result from Pennsylvania indicates that the contest will continue for another few weeks at least. The candidates will now move from Pennsylvania to Indiana and North Carolina. Hopefully, the primaries there will provide a clear result ending this bruising fight for the Democrat nomination.

There is growing pressure on Clinton to quit the race as she is trailing. But she has refused to do so and has in fact asserted herself by adopting increasingly aggressive positions on issues. Her threats to “obliterate” Iran are aimed at portraying Obama as unwilling to choose tough options but in the process, she has ended up sounding quite like a neo-con.

The mudslinging between the Democratic hopefuls continues. Both candidates continue to attack each other in their bid to convince their supporters that they are the better choice. This battle for the Democratic nomination could go into August, which means the party will have just a few months to rally behind the candidate to fight the Republicans. The campaign over the past months has been bitter and it does seem that wounds might not heal ahead of the election. Obama appears to have woken up to the fact that his real rival is the Republican candidate, John McCain. In recent weeks he has focused his campaign on McCain rather than on Clinton. This is a sound strategy. McCain and his Republican supporters are well into their campaign for the presidency. It is time the Democrats closed ranks and rallied behind their candidate. It is McCain who they should be fighting.