A “poll of polls” by CNN on Monday had Obama at 47 per cent and Clinton at 45 per cent in Texas, and 43 per cent and 48 per cent respectively in Ohio. If Clinton wins both Texas and Ohio, she could well be on her way to Pennsylvanian primary on April 22 to turn the Presidential nomination race into a tight finish ahead of the Democratic nomination convention in August. But if she loses one of them, there will be tremendous pressure on her from within the Democratic Party to bow out of the race instead of damaging Obama further ahead of the general election in November, Jim Henson, Director, Texas Politics Project, University of Texas at Austin told The Indian Express.

At a meeting in Austin on the poll eve, Clinton had said that she was ready for the results of her yearlong “job interview”. After a fierce debate with her party rival on a range of issues including health insurance, tax cuts, her campaign had of late focused on raising questions about Obama’s credibility as a claimant to be Commander-in-chief. She sought to exploit his association with Chicago businessman Tony Rezco who had gone on trial this week in a fraud case.

A day before the poll, she pounced on reports about a key financial advisor of Obama telling Canadian officials in Chicago that the Senator was asking for renegotiation on North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for “political positioning” and that he was not a “protectionist”. NAFTA has been an eyesore for the working class population in Ohio, which has witnessed a loss of 2,00,000 manufacturing jobs in the last seven years, and both Clinton and Obama want it to be renegotiated.

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