Last update - 00:00 05/02/2008
Obama predicts split decision in Democrat race on Super Tuesday
By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton looked to re-establish herself as the Democratic front-runner in an eyeball-to-eyeball duel with Barack Obama, while Republican John McCain hoped to bury rival Mitt Romney's presidential bid as millions voted across the country on Super Tuesday, the biggest primary day in U.S. history.
The vote is almost a national primary as each party was holding contests in more than 20 of 50 U.S. states, including some of the most populous, such as California and New York. At stake are about half the delegates who will choose a nominee at party conventions in August and September - not enough to clinch a nomination but plenty enough to mint a runaway favorite, or even two.
Clinton, the New York senator and wife of former President Bill Clinton, was long seen as the inevitable Democratic candidate with double-digit leads in the polls just weeks ago. Her supporters had expected that she would lock up the nomination with big wins on Super Tuesday.
But Obama, a first-term Illinois senator campaigning on a theme of hope and change, has narrowed her lead to little or nothing in the latest national and individual state polls.
Neither candidate was expected to emerge from Super Tuesday as the presumptive nominee. Clinton and Obama each hoped to win the majority of delegates at stake and claim front-runner status heading into the next rounds of state primaries and caucuses.
"We're all kind of guessing about what it's all going to mean because it's never happened before," Clinton said. "There's a lot we're going to find out about how all this works."
"One thing is certain," Obama said. "No matter what happens I think we'll see a split decision."
With so many states casting votes, Democrats were spending unprecedented amounts of money on television advertising. Clinton and Obama each poured more than $1 million a day into TV ads in the last week alone.
Clinton, flanked by her husband and daughter, voted in New York's Westchester County.
The electoral territory was vast and so were the stakes. Romney, his Republican bid on the line, campaigned as if conservatism itself were on the line. McCain led by double digits in national polls, but some surveys showed Romney gaining ground in delegate-rich California.
Romney sought until the end to exploit conservatives' mistrust of McCain, a veteran Arizona senator who opposed President George W. Bush's tax cuts when they were introduced, advocated a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, favors mandates to slow global warming and led campaign finance reforms that activists say trampled on their free speech rights.
In West Virginia, Romney told supporters at the state Republican nominating convention that McCain's support for global warming curbs would effectively kill coal, a lifeblood of the state, and just one of the McCain positions he branded out of the conservative mainstream.
Tempers heated up between the two Republicans on Tuesday, with McCain attacking his opponent for having a terrible record as governor, and Romney retorting that he must be a strong contender if he's so able to get under the Arizona senator's skin. McCain rallied in Manhattan before flying to California,
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, focused on the South, where he enjoys support from Christian conservatives. Though he is distant in national polls, he took the first prize of the day Tuesday afternoon, winning 18 delegates in West Virginia's Republican caucuses.
McCain could finish first in several Southern and border states - Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma and Missouri - with Huckabee and Romney splitting the conservative vote.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's decision to quit the race and endorse McCain after Florida's primary has given the Arizona senator a boost in Northeastern states where there are many moderate Republicans.
McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner-of-war who has campaigned on his national security experience, would be a formidable rival for either Obama or Clinton because of his appeal to independents. I can lead this nation and motivate all Americans to serve a cause greater than their self-interest, he said Monday.
The contests in two dozen states Tuesday were delivering 1,023 Republican and 1,681 Democratic delegates. The number needed to win the nomination: 1,191 Republican and 2,025 Democratic. So far, the AP puts Clinton's delegate tally at 261 while Obama has 196. Among Republicans, McCain has 102 delegates while Romney has 93.
Since winning South Carolina, Obama has collected a succession of marquee endorsements - including several members of the Kennedy family - and pulled into a statistical tie with Clinton in a national poll and in California, Tuesday's biggest prize with 370 Democratic delegates.
The two were campaigning for history as well - with Clinton seeking to become the first female president, Obama the first black commander-in-chief.
Little separates them on most issues, including universal health coverage, ending U.S. military involvement in Iraq and raising taxes on the rich. Instead, the campaign has turned on her experience and his vision of change.
Party rules were stacked against a Tuesday knockout for Democrats. All their 22 primaries and caucuses were awarding delegates proportionally, so coming in a strong second counted. In the Republican field, nine of the 21 contests offered all the delegates to the winner.
Among the most closely watched races:
-California, where Obama made up ground against longtime poll leader Clinton, and Romney bid for an upset.
-New York: Clinton's territory as senator, but Illinois Sen. Obama did not concede it.
-New Jersey: Another state where the Democratic race tightened.
-New Mexico, Arizona: Along with California, states with large Hispanic populations, which to date have favored Clinton.
McCain was favored in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and his home state of Arizona, with 251 delegates combined. Romney, who would be the first Mormon president, hoped to counter with victories in Utah, where the Mormon church is based, and West Virginia, as well as in a string of caucuses in Western and Midwestern states.
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