Washington - With the dust still settling Wednesday from a
stupifying blur of 43 contests in 24 states, the outcome of Super
Tuesday on the presidential nomination was still being tallied.
The biggest single day of presidential primary voting in US
history was marked by an arcane system to distribute delegates to the
summer nominating conventions that will chose the candidates for
November 4 general elections.
A quick delegate tally was hard to calculate early Wednesday, as
the rules for distributing delegates differ between the parties and
among the states, worsened by dizzying terminology: winner-take-all,
proportional by state or district, open primary, closed primary,
caucuses, convention, pledged delegates, super delegates.
In the centre-left Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton's victories
in New York and California - Super Tuesday's biggest prizes - could
help to propel her to a narrow victory in delegates over rival Barack
Obama. But neither senator was close to securing the majority of
delegates needed to win the nomination at the August convention in
Denver, Colorado.
Because the Democrats distribute delegates by a variety of
proportional systems, the margin of victory was as important as
finishing first.
In fact, Obama won at least 13 of 22 Democratic contests, mostly
in smaller states with fewer delegates. However the delegate count
adds up, he further cemented his national viability with victories in
places as far-flung as Georgia, Missouri and Alaska.
Once an unquestioned frontrunner, Clinton now faces a long battle,
and after Tuesday's results she claimed to look forward 'to
continuing our campaign.'
Even if she comes away with a few more delegates from Tuesday's
vote, Obama has clear momentum heading into voting later this month
in Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington state, Maine, Virginia, Maryland,
Hawaii and Wisconsin.
Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson told the Chicago Tribune
that the states on the February schedule 'clearly favor Obama more so
than us.' He held out better prospects for the primaries on March 3
in the big states of Ohio and Texas.
On the Republican side, Senator John McCain will wake up Wednesday
as the unquestioned frontrunner. The delegate totals were still
unclear, but he clearly seized the lion's share with victories in
nine of 21 states including the key, winner-take-all states of New
York, New Jersey, Missouri, Connecticut and his home state of
Arizona.
The clearest loser of the night was former Massachusetts governor
Mitt Romney, who had hoped to establish himself as the conservative
alternative to McCain, whose maverick reputation has kept him from
being embraced by the right wing of the Republican party.
Instead, the McCain juggernaut picked up steam. Romney won seven
states, but lost a handful of Southern, culturally conservative
states to former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a Baptist preacher.
Romney, who made a fortune in venture capital before entering
politics, has spent tens of millions of dollars of his own money, in
addition to raising tens of millions more from supporters. But his
prospects after Super Tuesday looked poor, indeed, even as he
exhorted supporters that the race was 'not done tonight.'
Huckabee, running his campaign on a shoestring, had struggled
since his January 3 victory in Iowa. He still poses little threat to
McCain but revelled in his resurgence at Romney's expense.
'A lot of people have been trying to say this is a two-man race.
It is, and we're in it,' Huckabee said to cheers at a campaign rally.
USA
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