jayanthah
03-05-2008, 11:26 AM
Clinton wins Texas, Ohio primaries
Wednesday Mar 5 15:00 AEDT
Democrat Hillary Clinton scored a huge boost in her White House campaign Tuesday, winning the popular vote in the Texas primary after taking Ohio and Rhode Island, US media said.
With 76 percent of the precincts reporting, Clinton had taken 51 percent of the vote to 47 percent for her bitter rival Barack Obama, CNN, MSNBC and CBS said.
Winning three out of Tuesday's four nominating contests gives Clinton's bid to be the first woman president a high-voltage burst of energy as she seeks to break Obama's momentum and win the party's nomination for the November polls.
RELATED LINKS
McCain wins nomination
Obama shrugs off defeats
After 11 wins in a row, Obama notched up only one more victory on Tuesday, when he took the small state of Vermont.
"You know what they say — as Ohio goes, so goes the nation. Well, this nation's coming back and so is this campaign," Clinton, 60, told her adoring supporters as confetti rained down on her victory rally in Columbus, Ohio.
"The people of Ohio have said it loudly and clearly, we're going on. We're going strong. And we're going all the way!" she said, hammering Obama as too inexperienced to confront national security and economic crises.
However, Obama's campaign had stressed that whatever the final outcome of "Super Tuesday II," Clinton faced an uphill battle to overhaul his lead among the Democratic delegates who would choose the party's presidential candidate.
With more than half the precincts reporting their results in Ohio, Clinton enjoyed a commanding lead over Obama of 58 percent to 41. In the Texas primary, Clinton led 50-48 with just over than half of districts reporting.
Capping an extraordinary political comeback after his campaign looked down and out in mid-2007, McCain beat former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee in all four of the day's primaries — Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island.
The victories took McCain, a Vietnam war hero who is distrusted by many conservatives for his maverick stance on issues such as immigration, over the Republican winning line of 1191 delegates.
With a Democratic nominee perhaps still months away from being anointed, the Arizona senator laid out his lines of attack for November's presidential election.
McCain, 71, promised to combat Islamic extremism, keep the US economy open to world trade and lower taxes if elected the successor to George W. Bush, whose blessing he was to receive at the White House on Wednesday.
"And I am very pleased to note that tonight, my friends, we have won enough delegates to claim with confidence, humility and a sense of great responsibility that I will be the Republican nominee for president of the United States," he told cheering supporters in a Dallas hotel.
Huckabee, an ordained Baptist preacher who had appealed to the southern Bible Belt, telephoned McCain to offer his acclaim and support for the general election ahead.
Obama had drawn first blood in the liberal northeastern state of Vermont to extend his month-long winning streak to 12 nominating contests. But Clinton hit back by taking Rhode Island, according to the projections.
Former president Bill Clinton said last month that Ohio and Texas were must-win states for his wife to sustain her dream of following him into the Oval Office.
But Hillary Clinton's campaign massaged expectations to turn Ohio into her firewall to douse the Obama blaze, accentuating her economic plans in a state ravaged by industrial decline and where feelings against free trade run high.
In Texas, the day-long primary was being followed by election caucuses in a quirky two-step process that was engulfed in controversy.
Clinton's campaign accused Obama's camp of engaging in "outrageous" and "undemocratic" tactics in the Lone Star state, including locking her supporters out of caucuses.
"What is happening tonight is just truly an outrage," Clinton's Texas state director Ace Smith said.
Obama's spokesman Bill Burton shot back: "This is a transparent and laughable attempt to divert attention from the caucus results, which reward delegates every bit as meaningful as do primaries."
Obama said Clinton had hurled the "kitchen sink" at him in recent days in eviscerating his credentials to be commander-in-chief and overseer of an economy headed for trouble.
According to RealClearPolitics.com, before heading into the latest contests Obama led by 1,392 delegates to Clinton's 1,279. The winning line to secure the White House nomination is 2,025.
A total of 370 Democratic delegates were at stake on the biggest day of primary voting since "Super Tuesday" on February 5.
But the Democratic Party apportions its delegates proportionally, so the overall tally was unlikely to change much either way. Instead battle lines were drawn about who is best qualified to take the fight to McCain.
Wednesday Mar 5 15:00 AEDT
Democrat Hillary Clinton scored a huge boost in her White House campaign Tuesday, winning the popular vote in the Texas primary after taking Ohio and Rhode Island, US media said.
With 76 percent of the precincts reporting, Clinton had taken 51 percent of the vote to 47 percent for her bitter rival Barack Obama, CNN, MSNBC and CBS said.
Winning three out of Tuesday's four nominating contests gives Clinton's bid to be the first woman president a high-voltage burst of energy as she seeks to break Obama's momentum and win the party's nomination for the November polls.
RELATED LINKS
McCain wins nomination
Obama shrugs off defeats
After 11 wins in a row, Obama notched up only one more victory on Tuesday, when he took the small state of Vermont.
"You know what they say — as Ohio goes, so goes the nation. Well, this nation's coming back and so is this campaign," Clinton, 60, told her adoring supporters as confetti rained down on her victory rally in Columbus, Ohio.
"The people of Ohio have said it loudly and clearly, we're going on. We're going strong. And we're going all the way!" she said, hammering Obama as too inexperienced to confront national security and economic crises.
However, Obama's campaign had stressed that whatever the final outcome of "Super Tuesday II," Clinton faced an uphill battle to overhaul his lead among the Democratic delegates who would choose the party's presidential candidate.
With more than half the precincts reporting their results in Ohio, Clinton enjoyed a commanding lead over Obama of 58 percent to 41. In the Texas primary, Clinton led 50-48 with just over than half of districts reporting.
Capping an extraordinary political comeback after his campaign looked down and out in mid-2007, McCain beat former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee in all four of the day's primaries — Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island.
The victories took McCain, a Vietnam war hero who is distrusted by many conservatives for his maverick stance on issues such as immigration, over the Republican winning line of 1191 delegates.
With a Democratic nominee perhaps still months away from being anointed, the Arizona senator laid out his lines of attack for November's presidential election.
McCain, 71, promised to combat Islamic extremism, keep the US economy open to world trade and lower taxes if elected the successor to George W. Bush, whose blessing he was to receive at the White House on Wednesday.
"And I am very pleased to note that tonight, my friends, we have won enough delegates to claim with confidence, humility and a sense of great responsibility that I will be the Republican nominee for president of the United States," he told cheering supporters in a Dallas hotel.
Huckabee, an ordained Baptist preacher who had appealed to the southern Bible Belt, telephoned McCain to offer his acclaim and support for the general election ahead.
Obama had drawn first blood in the liberal northeastern state of Vermont to extend his month-long winning streak to 12 nominating contests. But Clinton hit back by taking Rhode Island, according to the projections.
Former president Bill Clinton said last month that Ohio and Texas were must-win states for his wife to sustain her dream of following him into the Oval Office.
But Hillary Clinton's campaign massaged expectations to turn Ohio into her firewall to douse the Obama blaze, accentuating her economic plans in a state ravaged by industrial decline and where feelings against free trade run high.
In Texas, the day-long primary was being followed by election caucuses in a quirky two-step process that was engulfed in controversy.
Clinton's campaign accused Obama's camp of engaging in "outrageous" and "undemocratic" tactics in the Lone Star state, including locking her supporters out of caucuses.
"What is happening tonight is just truly an outrage," Clinton's Texas state director Ace Smith said.
Obama's spokesman Bill Burton shot back: "This is a transparent and laughable attempt to divert attention from the caucus results, which reward delegates every bit as meaningful as do primaries."
Obama said Clinton had hurled the "kitchen sink" at him in recent days in eviscerating his credentials to be commander-in-chief and overseer of an economy headed for trouble.
According to RealClearPolitics.com, before heading into the latest contests Obama led by 1,392 delegates to Clinton's 1,279. The winning line to secure the White House nomination is 2,025.
A total of 370 Democratic delegates were at stake on the biggest day of primary voting since "Super Tuesday" on February 5.
But the Democratic Party apportions its delegates proportionally, so the overall tally was unlikely to change much either way. Instead battle lines were drawn about who is best qualified to take the fight to McCain.