WASHINGTON — How Barack Obama navigates the next 10 days could be crucial in determining whether he can win the White House. The Illinois senator is poised to clinch the presidential nomination within days; perhaps as early as Tuesday night in St. Paul, Minn., when he celebrates the final returns from South Dakota and Montana. It's been a long, bruising race, but Obama would be wise to control the smugness reflex he lets slip out periodically.

"He has underestimated the passion that Hillary's people have, and I think the whole United States of America has underestimated the horror of the sexism we've seen over the last several months," said Clinton supporter B.J. Star, 59, an attorney in Dunedin who nonetheless thinks women will unite behind Obama. Obama has to reach out to the voters who ignored the caricature of Clinton as a ruthless, self-entitled candidate. These voters saw a brilliant, courageous woman fighting on and on amid a steady barrage of antagonistic media coverage, running against a rookie pol who only a few years ago was little more than a failed congressional candidate from Chicago.

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