Washington - Hillary Clinton roared back in the Democratic
race for the presidential nomination Tuesday, winning the key states
of Texas and Ohio and halting rival Barack Obama's 11-state winning
streak.
On the Republican side, John McCain captured the Republican
nomination with wins in all four states voting on Tuesday as his last
challenger, Mike Huckabee, conceded defeat and promised to help unite
the party behind the Arizona senator.
Clinton trounced Obama in Ohio, winning 55 per cent to 43 per cent
with more than 90 per cent of the votes counted, and television
networks projected a narrow victory in the Texas primary, where she
led 51 per cent to 47 per cent with 85 per cent of precincts
reporting.
The Democratic rivals split Tuesday's small-state primaries with
Obama winning Vermont and Clinton taking Rhode Island.
'You know what they say - as Ohio goes, so goes the nation. Well,
this nation's coming back, and so is this campaign,' Clinton told
ecstatic supporters in Columbus, Ohio.
'Ohio has written a new chapter in the history of this campaign,
and we're just getting started.'
Her three victories ended Obama's winning streak in 11 straight
state contests, which built nationwide momentum and established him
as the clear Democratic frontrunner with a small but meaningful lead
in the delegate count.
Obama congratulated Clinton on her wins but stressed that his edge
in delegates to the centre-left Democratic Party's nominating
convention in August remained intact, given that all states award
delegates proportionately.
'No matter what happens tonight, we have nearly the same delegate
lead as this morning, and we are on the way to winning this
nomination,' Obama told supporters in San Antonio, Texas.
He could still emerge with the most delegates from Texas, where
the state party's arcane rules distribute only two-thirds of the
delegates based on the primary vote. The remaining third are awarded
through caucus meetings held late Tuesday; results were still
trickling in Wednesday morning.
Before Tuesday, Clinton's campaign had been running short of money
while combatting Obama's growing image of inevitability. Even former
president Bill Clinton had said that his wife had to win in Texas and
Ohio to keep alive her hopes of becoming the first female president.
Obama had already been reinforcing his frontrunning position by
confronting McCain on his support for the Iraq war.
The now-certain Republican nominee McCain, 71, told cheering
supporters Tuesday that the general election 'begins tonight,' and he
offered broad outlines of his future campaign strategy.
'My friends, now we begin the most important part of our
campaign,' McCain told cheering supporters at a rally in Dallas,
Texas.
McCain effectively sealed the Republican nomination weeks ago and
has increasingly refocused his presidential campaign on the November
4 general elections.
On Tuesday, he promised victory in Iraq and chided Democrats for
focussing on the 2003 invasion.
'It is of little use to Americans for their candidates to avoid
the many complex challenges of these struggles by re-litigating
decisions of the past,' McCain said.
'The next president must explain how he or she intends to bring
that war to the swiftest possible conclusion without exacerbating a
sectarian conflict that could quickly descend into genocide,
destabilizing the entire Middle East.'
The Clinton and Obama camps have become nastier in recent weeks,
exchanging barbs over campaign tactics and highlighting their
differences over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA),
enacted during Bill Clinton's administration.
Clinton aides have lately questioned Obama's relationship with a
Chicago developer indicted in a kickback scheme to win state
government contracts. Obama charged that Clinton was throwing the
'kitchen sink' in an effort to rescue her bid for the White House.
Clinton has touted her experience in the White House and longer
tenure than Obama in the US Senate to argue that she is better
prepared for the presidency, and repeated Tuesday that she is ready
to take the helm on 'day one.'
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