GREENSBORO, North Carolina (AFP) — Hillary Clinton on Friday promised a "game-changer" in next week's nominating showdowns with Barack Obama despite his hefty mathematical advantage in their gripping White House race.
Clinton demanded immediate action to cut soaring gasoline prices as she barnstormed North Carolina, which along with Indiana hosts pivotal Democratic primaries vital to the fate of her long-odds comeback bid.
"This primary election on Tuesday is a game-changer, this is going to make a huge difference in what happens going forward," the New York senator declared, as she rallied supporters at a tractor showroom.
Polls favor Senator Obama in North Carolina, though the race has tightened in recent days, after he suffered through a miserable April.
The struggle meanwhile was too close to call in midwestern Indiana as the rivals dueled through the final nine nominating contests of a 16-month battle for the right to take on Republican presumptive nominee John McCain in the November presidential election.
"I have no doubt that these are going to be tight races," Obama told reporters in Indiana, bemoaning a "rough couple of weeks" after his loss to Clinton in Pennsylvania and a new controversy over his fiery former pastor.
"I think the American voters don't want a whole bunch of drama. What they're looking for is can you solve my problems?"
Clinton meanwhile pummeled Obama over his opposition to a 'holiday' on gasoline taxes as US drivers wither at high prices at the pump, but his campaign accused her of "pandering."
"Senator Obama doesn't want us to take down the gas tax this summer, Senator McCain wants us to, but he doesn't want to pay for it," Clinton told a cheering crowd in Hendersonville, in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
"I believe we should impose an excess profits tax on the oil companies." "We ought to say -- 'wait a minute, we'd rather have the oil companies pay the gas tax than the drivers of North Carolina, especially the truck drivers, or the farmers, or other people who have to commute long distances.'"
But Obama says the gas tax moratorium would only save most Americans less than 30 dollars over the summer, and debuted an political ad, titled "Pennies" decrying Clinton's plan, even as she introduced it as a Senate bill.
"Barack Obama's plan? Take on price-gouging by oil companies, tax their windfall profits. Invest in alternative energy. Give working families a permanent, thousand-dollar tax cut to help with rising costs," a narrator said.
"That's change we can believe in."
Clinton is trying to convince 'superdelegates' -- nearly 800 top party officials who hold the balance of power, now that neither she nor Obama can reach the 2,025 delegate threshold to win outright, that she is the best choice.
A tally by independent website RealClearPolitics.com had Obama up by 139 total delegates, 1,738 to 1,599, and fast closing on his rival's current 266-249 lead among superdelegates, with less than 300 superdelegates undeclared.
Clinton got a boost by winning a major endorsement from Indiana's top newspaper, the Indianapolis Star.
"Obama offers an attractive vision for the way things could be," the paper said.
But it added: "Clinton offers a clear-eyed view of the way things are ... experience makes Clinton the better choice."
Polls meanwhile showed softening support for Obama.
A Howey-Gauge poll in Indiana had him barely ahead, 47 percent to 45. Clinton trailed by 15 points in the same poll in February.
A Rasmussen poll in North Carolina on Friday had Obama leading by nine points, but with Clinton closing, cutting the gap from 14 points earlier this week.
But a Zogby tracking poll on Friday had Obama up 16 points in North Carolina, where he hopes his coalition of African-Americans, affluent white voters and students will carry him to a clear victory.
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