Never before have two presidential campaigns staked so much

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are closing out their marathon campaigning in Indiana and North Carolina tussling over Clinton's proposal to suspend the federal tax on each gallon of gasoline for the summer months, one of the few stark policy differences between the two Democratic presidential candidates.

A bipartisan group of more than 200 economists, including four Nobel Prize winners, signed a statement calling the gasoline-tax plan -- also endorsed by Republican John McCain -- a ``bad idea.'' Obama derides it as a ``gimmick.'' Clinton dismisses the economists and says Obama's opposition demonstrates he's out of touch with working-class voters.
The economy, especially energy costs, has moved front and center as the two candidates focused their messages for today's primaries in Indiana and North Carolina. Both candidates need at least one victory.
``If Obama can't rack up a comfortable win in North Carolina, questions about his deal-closing ability will intensify dramatically,'' said Rogan Kersh, professor of public service at New York University.
For Clinton ``the pressure to drop out will be immense if she loses both of these states,'' David Redlawsk, a political science professor at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, said.
Delegate Count
Obama has the lead among the delegates who will eventually decide the nomination, 1,743 to 1,607, according to an unofficial tally by the Associated Press. A candidate needs 2,025 to get the nomination.
Indiana and North Carolina combined have 187 pledged delegates at stake. While a split decision would make it almost impossible for Clinton to catch Obama in the delegate count, it would let her continue her fight though the seven remaining contests.
Polls show Clinton has the lead in Indiana 48 percent to 44 percent, while Obama maintains his edge in North Carolina, 50 percent to 42 percent, according to averages compiled by Pollster.com.
To make her appeal to working-class voters, a crucial constituency in the primary and the general election, Clinton is emphasizing an economic populist message.
Along with raising taxes on the wealthy and tougher negotiations with trading partners, Clinton said she wants to ``provide some immediate relief'' by suspending collection of the 18.4 cents-a-gallon gasoline tax during the summer driving season and taxing oil companies to make up for the lost revenue.
A Summer Break
``Let's give you a break this summer,'' Clinton, 60, told a crowd in Greenville, North Carolina, yesterday.
Obama is making his own populist pitch by skipping the arena-sized venues he's favored in other states for smaller town- hall-style events. He brought his wife and two young daughters on the trail to be at his side over the weekend when he met with voters, many of them the working-class Democrats who have tended to back Clinton in recent primaries.
He shook hands at a diner in Greenwood, Indiana, today and at a polling site at Butler University in Indianapolis. Later today he is scheduled to campaign in North Carolina before an evening rally in Raleigh.
Obama last night again blasted the summer gas-tax holiday idea, saying it offers ``pennies for 90 days but probably won't deliver those pennies.''
`Get Through' the Election
Such proposals are examples of when ``politicians are saying something just to get through the next election instead of actually solving the problem,'' he said at the American Legion Mall in Indianapolis.
The gasoline-tax moratorium emerged as a campaign issue as the two Democrats, who on other issues have offered policy prescriptions with more similarities than differences, tried to contrast the choices before voters.
Clinton, a New York senator, proposes making up the lost government revenue through a temporary tax on profits made by oil companies from the rise in crude oil prices, her main difference on the issue with McCain, an Arizona senator who is the presumptive Republican nominee.
With gasoline prices averaging about $3.61 a gallon, Clinton says the move would save the typical family about $70 during the months of June, July and August. Obama says the savings would be about $30, a figure supported by independent analysts. Obama backed a state-tax moratorium in 2000 in Illinois and said that showed him it wouldn't work.
`It's Tough'
Speaking to reporters on the flight to Evansville, Clinton acknowledged that it's not likely Congress and President George W. Bush would move to suspend the gas tax.
``Realistically it's tough,'' she said, criticizing members of her own party for not taking a tough stand on behalf of consumers. ``They've got to feel that Democrats are on their side. They have to know we're going to bat for them.''
Economists including Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University and Roger Myerson of the University of Chicago, both Nobel laureates, and former George H.W. Bush administration adviser Richard Schmalensee of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology signed the statement against the tax holiday. They said it would mostly benefit oil companies while reducing funds available for highway maintenance, the same argument advanced by Obama.
When asked again yesterday whether any economists support the gas-tax suspension, Clinton campaign spokesman Mo Elleithee said ``finding economists to support this hasn't been our focus. Our focus is on helping real people by giving them a break at the pumps in a fiscally responsible

everything is going bad in the USA becasue of that

thanks adnan

than for your coment