WASHINGTON (AP) — Still the underdog in a contest that won’t quit, Hillary Rodham Clinton pulled off a feisty act of political survival in the Pennsylvania primary, defeating Barack Obama to keep her Democratic presidential hopes alive.

The New York senator’s comfortable win sends the race on to North Carolina, where the flush-with-money Obama is favored; and Indiana, where the two are close.

Obama was able to stave off an eyebrow-arching blowout by Clinton even while falling short in his effort to bring the polarizing competition effectively to a close. Clinton beat him by about 10 points.

Their Keystone state matchup was fierce and bitter, which seemed to harden attitudes among Democrats even as Republican John McCain tended to the unification of his party and campaigned across the country in preparation for the fall. Only half of each Democrat’s supporters said they would be satisfied if the other Democrat won the nomination, according to interviews with voters as they left polling stations.

Obama wasted no time making tracks to Indiana. His plane was in the air when the primary was called in Clinton’s favor, which he discovered upon landing.

Clinton was winning 55 percent of the vote to 45 percent for Obama with 99 percent of the vote counted. She won the votes of blue-collar workers, women and white men in an election where the economy was the dominant concern. He was favored by blacks, the affluent and voters who recently switched to the Democratic Party, a group that comprised about one in 10 Pennsylvania voters, according to surveys conducted by The Associated Press and the TV networks.

Clinton won at least 66 delegates to the party’s national convention, with 35 still to be awarded, according to AP’s analysis of election returns. Obama won at least 57. A final count could come Wednesday, or later.

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Obama still can’t close the deal

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Why can’t Barack Obama close the deal?

It’s a question Hillary Rodham Clinton and her surrogates raised through the last days of the caustic Pennsylvania primary contest. And unfortunately for Obama — who lost to the former first lady by a 10-point margin Tuesday night — it’s a question that bears repeating.

The loss, despite a massive cash infusion and robust campaign presence in the state, underscores the persistent problems he’s had winning over many of the voters who form the traditional Democratic party base.

While the Illinois senator remains overwhelmingly popular among blacks, affluent voters and young people, other groups key to building the Democratic coalition remain elusive.

Clinton bested him among white, blue-collar voters by a margin of 69 percent to 30 percent in Pennsylvania, similar to her showing in Ohio last month. She also won older voters, women and whites and improved her margins among white, non-Catholic men.

To be sure, Obama has performed well among those groups in a handful of primaries, including Wisconsin and Virginia, both likely general election swing states.

Obama surely will emerge with sufficient delegates to maintain his overall lead, and Clinton’s win in Pennsylvania will not do much to close the popular vote gap as she tries to eat into his margin. But the sense of momentum that propelled him to crushing margins across 11 contests beginning in February has slowed, raising concerns among many party activists that he will be left bruised and limping by the time the primaries end in June.

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Blue-collar voters stay with Clinton

WASHINGTON (AP) — Working-class white voters rallied around Hillary Rodham Clinton as she kept her candidacy alive with a victory in Pennsylvania’s presidential primary. Barack Obama won among Democrats who had newly flocked to the party for the day’s showdown and scored even stronger than usual with blacks.

Obama, who had hoped to drive the New York senator from the race, fought hard during weeks of campaigning in the state to appeal to blue-collar white voters, a group he has seldom won during four months of Democratic contests.

But Clinton won support from two of three whites without college degrees, and about the same number of whites from families earning under $50,000 a year, according figures from exit polls of voters conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks. It was one of her stronger performances of the year with these groups.

There was little indication Obama was winning over constituencies he may have offended when he said at a fundraising event that small-town people were bitter and clung to guns and religion as a result. Gun owners, people who attend church at least weekly, and rural residents were all supporting Clinton by margins of about six in 10.

Even so, while more rural voters named Clinton than Obama as the candidate who was in touch with people like them, most said they connected with both contenders.

Clinton won among white men, a swing group in contests so far, by a dozen percentage points. She had won that group last month by 19 points in neighboring Ohio, whose voters have many similarities to Pennsylvania’s.

Overall, 62 percent of whites were supporting Clinton — a slightly stronger showing than usual. The state’s numerous Catholics and union members were also leaning heavily toward her.