Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Times Online:

Hillary Clinton today challenged Mr Obama to no less than four televised debates this month, with her campaign saying voters needed see how the Democratic rivals measure up “side by side” rather than rely on “rallies and big events”.

It is usually candidates coming from behind that demand more debates, but aides insisted today that Mrs Clinton had no need of greater name recognition. Instead, she wanted to demonstrate – as she has done in the past – that she makes an “effective case”.

Her campaign believes Mr Obama has recently been getting a free ride from a largely uncritical media and suggested he says “things that go unchallenged” elsewhere.

If Mr Obama agrees to the debates, two will be take place over the next six days including one on Fox TV, a conservative-leaning channel previously spurned by Democratic presidential candidates.

Mrs Clinton, who famously declared she found her voice when she won New Hampshire last month, appeared to be losing it again after cutting short an interview with a coughing fit. Howard Wolfson, her spokesman, later confirmed she was suffering from a dry throat, saying: “She has lost her voice to some measure.”

The strain is also being felt in her campaign finances, with insiders suggesting she raised roughly half Mr Obama’s $32 million last month. Both campaigns have spent over $50 million between them since Iowa’s caucuses on January 3.

The two campaigns are already beginning to focus on fresh battles in six states more over the next week. But they are also looking further ahead, to two critical contests in delegate-rich Ohio and Texas on March 4 – or even beyond, to the Pennsylvania primary on April 22.

Mr Wolfson said he was confident that Mrs Clinton would emerge from tonight’s votes narrowly ahead of Mr Obama in the race for delegates. But he conceded her lead could be reliant on the votes of “super delegates” – party officials who have already pledged their support to Mrs Clinton.

In a further sign of their unease, the Clinton camp repeated call for delegates awarded to her in Michigan and Florida, currently banned from this summer’s nominating convention in Denver, to have their voting rights restored.