Issue for Democrats: Who can win in fall?

He contends that he's a political game-changer, capable of turning some red Republican states Democrat blue. She says she's the best Democratic presidential candidate to take on John McCain and defeat him in crucial swing states.

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have dueling visions of what the November electoral map would look like depending on whom their party picks.

Clinton -- whose campaign is behind on delegates and superdelegates and low on cash -- has been trying to convince the Democratic Party establishment that she would be a better nominee than Obama because she's won primaries in big swing states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Florida, which will probably be battlegrounds in the fall.

Obama, who would be the nation's first major-party black presidential nominee, says his presence in the race would shake up the traditional red-state, blue-state landscape and give Democrats a solid chance in Republican-leaning states such as Virginia, Iowa, Colorado and perhaps North Carolina.

Peter Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac University's Polling Institute, said that Clinton can cite recent polls to bolster her argument as to why she should be the nominee. A Quinnipiac survey this month showed Clinton leading McCain in Florida (49 to 41 percent), Ohio (48 to 38 percent) and Pennsylvania (51 to 37 percent).

The same survey showed Obama leading McCain in Pennsylvania (47 percent to 38 percent), but in a statistical dead heat with him in Ohio and Florida.

"There's evidence to buttress her case. She seems to be strong in these states," Brown said. "But if she doesn't win the nomination, it doesn't matter."

Clinton's swing-state strength claim has some holes, though, political experts say. She doesn't take into account that Obama won a number of swing states in the primaries: Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.