Analysis: Debate Unlikely to Change Race

Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are making their final pitches to voters in Ohio and Texas, must-win contests for Clinton, after a mostly somber and policy-filled debate that seemed unlikely to alter the political calculus of the race.

In sometimes testy exchanges, the two sparred over health care, the war in Iraq and trade, particularly the North American Free Trade Agreement which was negotiated in her husband's first term -- but is seen by labor and other critics as a chief culprit in the loss of manufacturing jobs in Ohio and other industrial Midwestern states.

Both candidates have called for renegotiating parts of the trade pact, but in different terms.

It was their final debate before next Tuesday's contests, which also include races in Vermont and Rhode Island.

Clinton needs big wins after 11 successive Obama victories and after Obama's steady increase in gathering delegates. It seemed unlikely the debate at Cleveland State University would provide that lift.

Neither one seemed to knock the other off stride.

"I don't think the debate changes a lot. Both came across as strong in the ways they've always been seen as strong," said Wayne Fields, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis who studies political rhetoric. Neither one managed to seriously erode the other's credibility.

•	Analysis: Debate Unlikely to Change Race Associated Press, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008 Byline: Tom Raum, Associated Press

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