By Michael H. Cottman
Hillary Clinton has her swagger back and she's talking tough.
A day before Tuesday's critical Democratic presidential primaries in North Carolina and Indiana, the New York senator said she'd "totally obliterate" Iran if it attacks Israel.
It's part of Clinton's continued strategy on the campaign trail to present herself as a no-nonsense, tough-talking, take-charge leader who if pushed, will push back hard.
In fact, James Carville, one of Clinton's senior advisers and her most outspoken surrogate, has described Clinton's toughness over her rival Barack Obama in graphic detail.
"If she gave him [Obama] one of her cojones," Carville said, "they'd both have two."
Clearly, this is a campaign that appears to prefer the battering ram approach to winning elections, over finesse.
Clinton strategists are now considering pushing through a plan to seat the Florida and Michigan delegates who are still in dispute. Florida as 210 delegates and Michigan has 156. The move could give Clinton about 55 more delegates than Obama and would certainly be considered controversial.
The Clinton battle plan comes days after Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, suggested that one of the candidates drop out after the June 3 primaries so voters can rally around the nominee and prepare to take on Republican John McCain.
That's not happening.
There is also continued anxiety within the Democratic Party because some black congressional leaders have suggested privately that many black voters will not support Clinton overwhelmingly if she's perceived as making back-door deals to win the nomination.
In the meantime, Clinton has been endorsed by The Indianapolis Star, North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley, and she has Rev. Marcia Dyson, wife of author Michael Eric Dyson, former president of Rock the Vote Jehmu Greene, and actress Erika Alexander campaigning on her behalf in an effort to court black voters.
The latest polls in Tuesday's primaries show Indiana as too close to call, while Obama has a 5 to 9 percentage point lead in North Carolina.
Clinton campaign aides, including former president Bill Clinton, are working the phones in an effort to lock down undecided super delegates and urge those who are with Clinton not to switch to Obama, as Joe Andrew, a former Democratic National Committee chairman from Indiana, did last week.
In a boost for Obama, a majority of American voters say that the uproar over the relationship between Obama and his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright has not affected their opinion of Obama, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.
More than 60 percent of voters in the poll said that Clinton says what people want to hear, rather than what she believes. Forty-three percent said the same about Obama, and 41 percent about Sen. John McCain.
Carville may not believe Obama has the "cojones" to be president and his tough talk reflects the perception among some Democrats that the campaign is all about strong-arming its way to victory.
On Tuesday, as the rapid-fire rhetoric comes from both camps, voters in North Carolina and Indiana will finally have their say.
