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WASHINGTON: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama dug in
for a protracted fight for the Democratic White House nomination
after battling to a brutal draw in their coast-to-coast Super
Tuesday showdown.
John McCain meanwhile strode
closer to the top of the Republican ticket, as main rival Mitt
Romney failed to halt his charge, and Mike Huckabee picked up the
slack with surprise wins in the conservative deep South.
Clinton, 60, won the three
biggest prizes, California, her home state of New York and
Massachusetts, by handy margins, checking an Obama surge by
capturing eight states, and keeping alive her quest to be the first
woman president.
Senator Obama won more states,
13, including his own patch of Illinois, battlegrounds Connecticut
and Missouri, and Georgia by a landslide. New Mexico was still too
close to call.
The rivals geared up for a
grinding war of attrition in subsequent contests over the next two
months, over delegates doled out by states on a proportional basis,
who will eventually anoint the nominee at August’s party
convention.
A Real Clear Politics running
count had Clinton on 829 delegates, more than a third of the 2,025
she needs to capture the nomination. Obama was close behind with
750.
On the Republican side, McCain
stood at 560 delegates, Romney had 226 and Huckabee was on 154,
according to the tally. Republicans need 1,191 to capture their
nomination.
For Clinton, the win in
Massachusetts was especially sweet, after its heavyweight Democratic
Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry backed Obama, sparking a
publicity blitz.
“I look forward to continuing
our campaign and our debate – about how to leave this country
better off for the next generation, because that is the work of my
life,” Clinton told a “victory” rally in New York.
Her top strategist, Mark Penn
added: “The race will drag on for weeks longer; this is not going
to be decided any time in the near future.”
Obama, however, laid claim to the
momentum in the knife-edge Democratic race.
“Our time has come. Our
movement is real. And change is coming to America,” he told his
rally in Chicago.
“What began as a whisper has
now swelled to a chorus that cannot be deterred.”
Obama’s campaign manager David
Plouffe said the senator was in a “strong position to win the
Democratic nomination,” and eyed contests next week in Maryland,
Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Exit polls suggested Obama had
kept his grip on African-American voters, and improved his share
among whites. Clinton’s bulwark of Hispanic and older women voters
also held firm.
McCain, 71, went into the night
trying to take a stranglehold on the Republican nomination, and
picked up wins in nine states, including California, New York,
Illinois, Connecticut, Delaware and New Jersey.
“We should now get used to the
idea that we are now the Republican party frontrunner for the
nomination ... and I don’t really mind it one bit,” McCain told
cheering supporters in Arizona.
His drive to the verge of the
nomination is all the more remarkable given that his campaign was
widely written off last year, following a cash crunch and plummeting
poll numbers.
Ordained Baptist pastor Huckabee
snatched victories in five southern states, while Romney won seven
states, but failed to capture his top target California as he tried
to ignite a conservative backlash against his rival.
A campaign aide said the Romney
camp would have “frank discussions” about the future on
Wednesday, the American television network NBC reported.
Huckabee put himself forward as
the main alternative to McCain.
“Over the past few days, a lot
of people have been trying to say that this is a two-man race –
well, you know what? It is, and we’re in it,” Huckabee said at
his campaign headquarters in Arkansas.
Clinton went into the clash after
pocketing wins in New Hampshire and Nevada, while Obama took the
leadoff Iowa caucuses and thumped her in the South Carolina primary.
States won by Clinton on Super
Tuesday: California, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Massachusetts,
New Jersey, New York and Arizona.
Obama racked up Georgia,
Illinois, Delaware, Alabama, North Dakota, Utah, Connecticut,
Kansas, Minnesota, Colorado, Idaho, Alaska and Missouri.
McCain celebrated wins in
Illinois, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, New York, Oklahoma,
Arizona, California and Missouri.
Romney picked up Massachusetts,
Utah, North Dakota, Minnesota, Colorado, Montana and Alaska, while
Huckabee scored in Arkansas, West Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama and
Georgia.
--AFP
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