Six-week lull buys Clinton time in U.S. race

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After two months of almost weekly showdowns, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton take a six-week break before the next contest in Pennsylvania -- giving Clinton time to shift a tight Democratic presidential race in her favor.

Without a weekly horse race to consume the candidates and occupy the media, the focus now moves to broader arguments about who would make the best nominee against Republican John McCain in November's election.

And the target audience shifts from voters in individual states to the group likely to settle the hotly contested race -- the nearly 800 Democratic superdelegates, those party insiders and officials who can back any candidate.

"The next six weeks is not about voters, it's about spinning the press," said Democratic consultant Dane Strother. "Clinton has to change the game, because she's losing."

The intense around-the-clock media environment fueled by cable television and the Internet will not take six weeks off, so a hungry news machine will be looking for new trends, hot controversies and changing story lines.

"This is going to be a test of both candidates' ability over the next six weeks to stay in the game. It's going to be a very different phase," said Simon Rosenberg, head of the Democratic advocacy group NDN.

"There won't be as much emphasis on the horse race and momentum, so there will be more examination of the two candidates," he said. "This could be the knockout phase. At some point, one of these campaigns is going to start to fade."

Only 10 Democratic contests remain, and Pennsylvania's 158 pledged delegates are the biggest haul left. Obama leads Clinton in pledged delegates, but neither can get the 2,025 delegates needed to clinch the nomination without help from superdelegates.