Washington - Former first lady Hillary Clinton took an early
lead over Democratic rival Barack Obama in the Super Tuesday
presidential primaries, while John McCain picked up support that
could help him seal the Republican Party nomination.
With a record 24 states holding votes coast to coast, Clinton took
an initial six, including New York and New Jersey, projections by US
television networks based on exit polls showed. Obama, seeking to
become the first African-American president, was forecast to win
Illinois, which includes his home town of Chicago, and three others.
Vietnam war veteran McCain, 71, pulled ahead of millionaire
businessman Mitt Romney and Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, 52, a
Baptist pastor with a strong appeal among social conservatives who
won the day's first contest in West Virginia.
On the biggest-ever single day of presidential preference votes by
the two major parties, the top prizes included California, New York,
Illinois and New Jersey. Both parties were choosing about half their
delegates to nominating conventions in the summer.
With excitement and suspense rivalling that of a general election,
many voters weighed their choice up until the moment they entered the
polling booth.
Heavily tatooed artist Chuck Martin, 27, was still undecided
between Clinton and Obama, both US senators, who went into Super
Tuesday running neck-and-neck for the Democratic nomination and the
chance to retake the White House for their party.
'This is the first time I've ever bothered to vote, and man, I'm
having a hard time,' Martin said. 'Clinton and Obama are both such
good candidates.'
Because Democrats award delegates mostly according to a
contender's share of the vote in each state, Tuesday could end with
Obama, 46, and Clinton, 60, still locked in battle for the
centre-left party's nomination.
National polls showed Obama gaining momentum ahead of Tuesday's
vote, bolstered by backing from fellow senator Edward Kennedy and
Caroline Kennedy, brother and daughter of slain president John F
Kennedy - both icons of the left.
Obama was in a statistical tie with Clinton, including in some
polls in delegate-rich California. California's time zone means it
will be among the last states to announce results.
McCain, a US senator from Arizona, has surged to the lead in the
Republican field. He won key endorsements by California Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.
McCain said Tuesday could be a big day for his campaign, but when
pressed in a television interview, he refused to get too far ahead of
himself and predict a final victory.
'It's well-known, I'm very superstitious,' he said on NBC. 'And so
I carry around my penny that I found with the head up.'
Republican Party rules that give the first-place finisher the
entire delegation in a handful of winner-take-all states could help
him nail down the nomination Tuesday, though his two major rivals
could also splinter the vote.
Obama, son of a Kenyan father and a white American mother, has
emerged as perhaps the most exciting new face in the 2008 race.
He and Clinton have battled for weeks as both camps sharpened the
contrast between Obama's lofty message of change - a powerful
vote-getter in a nation weary of Bush and the Iraq war - and
Clinton's greater political experience she brings to the White House
on 'day one.'
Yet the Democratic nominee is far from assured of victory in the
November 4 presidential election. In the critical battle for
independent voters, polls suggest McCain would be a strong match for
Clinton or Obama.
USA
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