US:HILLARY CLINTON has predicted that the outcome of next week's primaries in Indiana and North Carolina will be a "game-changer" in the Democratic race, where she is trailing Barack Obama among the delegates who choose the party's nominee.
Mrs Clinton has insisted that she will not pull out of the race if she loses both contests next week but her advisers acknowledge that she must win in Indiana and come a close second in North Carolina to keep the race going until early June, when all states will have voted.
Polls show voters moving towards Mrs Clinton both nationally and in the states that vote next week but Mr Obama has continued to win the support of superdelegates - almost 800 party officials who could prove decisive.
Campaigning in Indiana yesterday, Mr Obama said he wanted to move beyond the "noise" that has surrounded his campaign in recent weeks and to concentrate on policy issues.
"What we've been trying to do is to make sure that we refocus on what matters to people. You know, I think the American voters don't want a whole bunch of drama," he said.
Mr Obama said it was legitimate for voters to ask questions about his character and his values, not least because he was still unfamiliar to many Americans.
"Look, I think that it is very relevant for voters to figure out, is this somebody they can trust? Is this somebody who's going to fight for them? Is this somebody that cares about the same things they do?
"When you're running for president, you make certain assumptions that people after 15 months really know who you are, and then you realise maybe there are still a whole bunch of folks who don't know who you are despite the fact that you're on TV every day. I think it's really important for me to make sure that we're out there as much as possible."
Mr Obama won a succession of dramatic victories in February but has not won a significant contest since then and he has struggled in recent weeks to shake of the image of an elitist politician who is most comfortable with affluent liberals.
He said yesterday that of all the candidates running for office, he and his wife Michelle came from the most modest backgrounds.
"In fact, our lives when you look over the last two decades more closely approximate the lives of the average voter than any of the other candidates," Mr Obama said.
"We've struggled with paying student loans. We've tried to figure out whether we have adequate daycare. I've actually filled up my own gas tank."
Mr Obama yesterday criticised Mrs Clinton for joining Republican John McCain in a call for a three-month suspension of the federal tax on petrol, which funds highway maintenance.
He claimed that the tax holiday would save most consumers only about $25 over the entire period but would mean neglecting important infrastructural maintenance work.
"At best, this is a plan that would save you pennies a day for the summer months; that is, unless gas prices are raised to fill in the gap, which is just what happened in Illinois, when we tried this a few years ago," he said.
Mrs Clinton defended her support for the tax holiday, saying she was responding to the concerns expressed by voters everywhere she went.
"All I hear about is gas prices. Gas and diesel, everywhere," she said.