A reinvigorated
Hillary Rodham Clinton braced for stiffer challenges from
Barack Obama after three sorely needed primary wins salvaged
her faltering candidacy and promised to prolong their
bruising battle for the Democratic presidential
nomination.
Republican John
McCain, meanwhile, focused on the November general
election after clinching his party's nomination with
victories in Tuesday night's primaries in Texas, Ohio,
Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Clinton powered
to wins the big races in Texas and Ohio, as well as Rhode
Island, to break a losing streak of 11 contests. Obama's
only victory came in liberal Vermont. But the
first-term senator also came away with a large share
of delegates in counting that continued Wednesday, meaning
he has a lead that is tough to overcome.
''This nation's
coming back and so is this campaign,'' Clinton told
supporters at a victory celebration in Columbus, Ohio.
Clinton's
comeback means that a historic contest between the Illinois
senator seeking to become the first black U.S. president and
the New York senator seeking to become the first
female U.S. president is likely to continue for weeks
or months.
In a Republican
race eclipsed by a fierce Democratic battle, McCain's
wins forced his last main rival, former Arkansas governor
Mike Huckabee, to back out.
It was a striking
achievement in a party once wary of McCain's famously
independent ways, and earned him final validation: an
invitation to the White House on Wednesday to receive
the endorsement of President George W. Bush, his
nemesis in the 2000 presidential campaign.
''The most
important race begins,'' McCain said in an Associated Press
interview.
''There are going
to be stark choices between a liberal Democrat and a
conservative Republican. I believe I can prevail in that
contest of ideas and vision,'' the veteran Arizona
senator and former Vietnam prisoner of war said.
No such unity
came from the Democrats; instead, their crackling race was
still on, and perplexing as ever.
''For everyone
here in Ohio and across America who's ever been counted
out but refused to be knocked out,'' Clinton said, ''and for
everyone who has stumbled and stood right back up, and
for everyone who works hard and never gives up, this
one is for you.''
Clinton won about
55% of the Ohio vote in nearly complete returns. She
was winning just over 50% in the Texas primary. Clinton
carried Rhode Island with 58% of the vote, while Obama
won Vermont with 60%.
Clinton still
faced a daunting task trying to overtake Obama in the
remaining contests. It was questionable whether she would
make up much ground once the final results were in
from Tuesday's contests and the complexities of
allotting the 370 delegates at stake in the four states
were ironed out.
''We have nearly
the same delegate lead as we did this morning,'' Obama
said at an election night rally in San Antonio, ''and we are
on our way to winning this nomination.''
Obama took the
lead in post-election caucuses in Texas before counting
closed for the night -- 55% to 44%, with results in from
40%. One third of the Texas delegates at stake Tuesday
will be allotted on the basis of the caucus results.
In the four-state
competition for delegates, Clinton picked up at least
115, to at least 88 for Obama. Nearly 170 more remained to
be allocated for the night, 154 of them in the Texas
primary and caucuses that followed that same night.
Obama had a total
of 1,477 delegates, including separately chosen party
and elected officials known as superdelegates, according to
the Associated Press count. Clinton had 1,391
delegates. It takes 2,025 to win the nomination at the
party's national convention in late August.
Wyoming offers 12
delegates in caucuses Saturday; Mississippi has 33 at
stake next week. The biggest remaining prize is
Pennsylvania, with 158 delegates, April 22.
Clinton and Obama
spent most of the past two weeks in Ohio and Texas in a
bitter campaign, with Clinton questioning his sincerity in
opposing the North American Free Trade Agreement, an
unpopular pact with Mexico and Canada, and darkly
hinting he is not ready to be commander in chief in a
crisis.
Opinion polls had
shown Obama overcoming significant and long-standing
Clinton leads in Texas and Ohio, but his gains slowed in the
final stretch.
Hispanics, a
group that favored Clinton by a nearly 2-1 margin, cast
nearly one third of the primary votes in Texas, up from
about one quarter of the ballots four years ago,
according to interviews with voters as they left their
polling places.
Blacks, who once
again voted heavily for Obama, accounted for roughly 20%
of the votes cast, roughly the same as four years ago.
Both Democrats
called McCain -- a Senate colleague -- to congratulate him
on his triumph in the Republican race.
The 71-year-old
Arizona senator surpassed the 1,191 delegates needed to
win his party's nomination at the national convention in
early September.
He sealed a
nomination race against odds that seemed all but impossible
last year.
Facing a couple
of well-financed marquee candidates in a crowded field,
he opened his comeback in New Hampshire's leadoff primary,
rolled over former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani
in Florida, and finished off Mitt Romney, a former
Massachusetts governor, after the biggest primary day,
Super Tuesday on February 5.
Huckabee hung in
until Tuesday night, gamely keeping up the fight weeks
after dropping from long shot to afterthought. He went out
as he came in -- never missing a chance for a
wisecrack.
''It's time for
us to hit the reset button,'' he said. ''We started this
effort with very little recognition and virtually no
resources. We ended with slightly more recognition and
very few resources.''
Huckabee became a
passing sensation with his victory in the leadoff Iowa
caucuses, and a continued draw for religious conservatives
who consider McCain too moderate or liberal.
A heavy dose of
establishment endorsements helped McCain, as did his
broadening support in later contests. But it is uncertain
how enthusiastically the party's base will rally
behind him in the November election.
His appeal to
independents and moderates could make him a tough foe for
either Clinton or Obama.
On Tuesday night,
McCain delivered a speech on the state of the union as
he wants to make it: secure from Islamic extremism,
victorious in Iraq, confident in trade, sound in its
economy.
''Americans
aren't interested in an election where they are just talked
to and not listened to; an election that offers platitudes
instead of principles and insults instead of ideas,''
he told supporters at a victory celebration in a
Dallas hotel ballroom.
''Their patience
is at an end for politicians who value ambition over
principle, and for partisanship that is less a contest of
ideas than an uncivil brawl over the spoils of
power.'' (AP)
