KEY POINTS:
SELMA, ALABAMA - The congregation at the First Baptist Church in Selma, Alabama, was in full voice when the smiling face of Senator Hillary Clinton peered from a door behind the pulpit and saw she was already a little late.
"Have a little talk with Jesus," the hymn began. "Tell him about your troubles."
The particular trouble for Clinton nowadays could be found just a few hundred metres away in another place of worship on the same Martin Luther King St, the Brown Chapel AME Church. Senator Barack Obama was there and he was packing them to the rafters too.
Selma was commemorating the 1965 clash on the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River between state police and marchers for voting rights for blacks, a key turning point in the struggle for desegregation. But "Bloody Sunday" was sharing attention in this small, still slightly shabby city. Here, two new armies met in a first skirmish of a war that has 20 months to run. They are the troops of Barack and Hillary.
Both duelling contenders were presented with a plaque and the keys to the city.
If sheer numbers matter, the news from Selma was discouraging for Clinton. To win her party's presidential nomination for 2008, she will need as many black votes as possible. It is why she was here and why at the last moment her camp announced that she would be joined by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who remains beloved by many blacks.
But it was only last week that she changed her schedule to be in Selma and the reason is barely a mystery: she had learned that Obama, the rival she fears above all others in the Democratic field, was going to be there and she could not afford to leave the day to him. While only months ago she polled far above Obama among African American voters, suddenly new polls show him pulling ahead.
James Carter, 38, a healthcare manager, had driven with his two young sons to Selma to attend not Hillary's church service, but Barack's. "She is worried about the African-American vote and I think it's true that our community is split right now," he said.
But no one could have stood between the two churches shortly before worship and not noticed the imbalance between the crowds. Carter and his boys stood in a line of maybe 500, crossing their fingers for a seat in the Brown Chapel. Massive cuts of pork sizzled on barbeque grills by the roadside.
The throng for Hillary up the street was meagre by comparison.
This may first, of course, be about curiosity. The voters know Hillary, but for most Americans Barack is still an almost blank book. Indeed, among those in Obama's line many said they were not ready to choose. "I haven't formed an opinion yet," said Carter. "I really don't know, and I have come here to hear his message."
"This is going to be a rough race," predicted Bronzell Cooley, 71, who also had driven hours to hear Obama. "I want to see for myself if he is as good as everyone says he is."
If Clinton was disturbed by the mismatch in numbers yesterday, one of those in line for her surely wasn't. "I am here to see the next president of the United States," declared Ernest Currie, 50, who had driven all the way from Pensacola, Florida. "How do I know Hillary will win? Because it is the divine order, both spiritual and physical."
Senator Barack Obama
Venue in Selma: Wallace Community College, Brown Chapel AME Church.
Key quote: "I'm here because somebody marched. I'm here because you all sacrificed for me. I stand on the shoulders of giants."
Poll popularity: ABC/Washington Post poll released on Saturday had Obama leading Clinton among African-Americans, 44 to 33 per cent.
Senator Hillary Clinton
Venue in Selma: First Baptist Church.
Key quote: "We have a march to finish ... Our future matters. And it is up to us to take it back. Put it into our hands and start marching toward a better tomorrow."
Poll popularity: ABC/Washington Post had Clinton leading Obama among Democrat voters 36 to 24 per cent.
- INDEPENDENT
