May 5, 2008 North Carolina, Indiana to vote Tuesday Play video

(Alison King, NECN) - The polls will be open in Indiana and North Carolina on Tuesday. Will either contest ultimately decide who wins the Democratic nomination.

NECN's Alison King takes a look.

Barack Obama: "This gas tax, which was first proposed by John McCain and then quickly adapted by Senator Clinton, is a classic Washington gimmick."

Clinton: "My proposal is very different from Senator McCain. Senator McCain has said take off the gas tax, don't pay for it. Throw us further into deficit and debt. That is not what I propose."

As Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton haggle over the pluses and minuses of the gas tax, their top advisors are, behind the scenes, calculators in hand, focused on the arithmetic of winning.

One number looms large for both campaigns: 2,025. It is the number of delegates needed to secure the Democratic nomination.

Counting committed delegates and committed superdelegates, the Associated Press currently shows Obama with 1,743 to Clinton's 1,607. There are still about 290 uncommitted superdelegates -- and more than 400 delegates remaining in eight more contests.

218 of those delegates are up for grabs on Tuesday when North Carolina and Indiana have their primaries.

There are several polls out suggesting who will win and who will lose, but one thing seems clear -- the races will likely be close -- which means, no one candidate is expected to dramatically pull ahead and much like the aftermath of

So where would that leave us? Both candidates have said they intend to stay in the race until the end. After Tuesday, there are just six races remaining.

May 13th in West Virginia, May 20th in Kentucky and Oregon, June 1st in Puerto Rico and June 3rd in Montana and South Dakota.

That's when the real action is likely to begin, and the long simmering questions will start to be answered.