Clinton, Obama neck-and-neck on eve of Texas, Ohio

The latest polls show the two candidates neck-and-neck in Ohio and Texas, two states that Clinton needs to win to fend off an 11-state victory string from the Obama campaign.

Obama holds a slight lead in the most recent polls in Texas, but the difference is within the margin of error.  Clinton holds a slightly bigger lead in Ohio, but one new poll showed her rival overtaking her in the past few days.

In Ohio, Clinton holds an average 4.7 point lead in the 6 most recent polls, according to Real Clear Politics.  She leads Obama by an average of 47.7 to 43.0.  But the two most recent polls are flatly contradictory. Clinton holds a big 12-point lead over Obama in the Suffolk University poll. But the Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll shows the New York senator down by 2 points. Both polls concluded on Sunday.

Things are a little different in Texas, where the latest polls show Obama may be pulling ahead, although his lead is not substantial.  Obama had trailed in the state for months, and Clinton was hoping to use her strong support from the Hispanic community to pull her to victory in the Lone Star State. Obama has an average 1 point lead in Texas, leading Clinton 46.3 to 45.2, well within the margin of error, meaning that either candidate could actually be ahead.

With the polls showing Obama momentum, "Remember New Hampshire" has become the rallying cry for the Illinois senator's campaign.  The candidate and staff point to the polls in the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary where Obama was expected to win easily after his upset victory in the Iowa caucuses.  Instead, Clinton dug in and pulled out an upset victory of her own.

The Clinton camp is hoping for another New Hampshire style victory while the Obama camp is hoping to avoid overconfidence that would discourage people from turning out at the polls.