Washington - African-American candidate Barack Obama beat
former first lady Hillary Clinton in two state contests Saturday for
the Democratic presidential nomination, further tightening the
party's race.
Obama held 2-1 margins over Clinton after party caucuses in
Nebraska and in the north-western state of Washington, the biggest
prize on a night of Democratic voting in three states from the Gulf
of Mexico to the Pacific Coast.
Exit polls also showed Obama, 46, ahead in Louisiana after
Saturday's Democratic primary, but it was too early to call a winner
in the Gulf Coast state. McCain and Huckabee were neck-and-neck in
early results there.
On the Republican side, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee -
the only possible obstacle to Senator John McCain's presidential
nomination - easily won caucuses in the Midwestern state of Kansas.
Obama, 46, could overtake Clinton, 60, in the state-by-state
Democratic delegate count on the strength of his latest showing. He
had already won 15 states heading into Saturday compared to Clinton's
12.
After Saturday's votes, the nomination battles move on with
Democratic caucuses Sunday in Maine and on Tuesday with voting by
both parties in jurisdictions clustered along the Potomac River -
Virginia, Maryland and the federal city of Washington.
At a rally Saturday night the Virginia capital of Richmond,
Clinton described the problems of war, economic uncertainty and
social inequality facing the next president, who takes office on
January 20, 2009.
'Our task tonight is to make sure that president is a Democrat,'
she said.
Obama, seeking to become the first black US president, has
consistently done well in states where Democrats hold caucuses -
local party meetings that reward fervour by requiring voters to
assemble for an hour or more to voice their preferences for a
presidential candidate.
'There's no doubt that (Clinton) hasn't generated the kind of
grass-roots enthusiasm that we have,' Obama was reported as telling
journalists on his campaign plane.
Huckabee leapt from obscurity with a surprise win last month in
Iowa, the first state on the calendar of 2008 intra-party contests to
decide the major-party presidential nominations.
With little money and a small campaign organization, he was unable
to capitalize on his Iowa breakout until so-called Super Tuesday
earlier this week, when he won five Southern states.
A Baptist minister before entering politics, Huckabee has appealed
largely to conservative Christians and other voters on the right wing
of the centre-right Republican Party.
Kansas has a strong evangelical movement, and with the caucus
results completed statewide, Huckabee had 60 per cent to McCain's 24
per cent.
McCain, who holds a towering lead over Huckabee in delegates to
the Republican presidential convention in September, is still the
overwhelming frontrunner for the party's nomination, after his
closest rivals dropped out in recent weeks.
USA
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