Obama Sweeps 3 States, Huckabee Takes 2

Feb 10, 11:41 AM  (ET)

By DAVID ESPO
WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Barack Obama swept the  Louisiana primary and caucuses 
in Nebraska and Washington state Saturday night,  slicing into Sen. Hillary 
Rodham Clinton's slender delegate lead in their  historic race for the 
Democratic presidential nomination.

The Illinois senator also won caucuses in the Virgin Islands, completing  his 
best night of the campaign.
"Today, voters from the West Coast to the  Gulf Coast to the heart of America 
stood up to say 'yes we can'" Obama told a  cheering audience of Democrats at 
a party dinner in Richmond, Va.

He jabbed simultaneously at Clinton and Arizona Sen. John McCain, saying  the 
election was a choice between debating the Republican nominee-in-waiting  
"about who has the most experience in Washington, or debating him about who's  
most likely to change Washington. Because that's a debate we can  win."
Clinton preceded Obama to the podium. She did not refer to the night's  
voting, instead turning against McCain. "We have tried it President Bush's way,"  
she said, "and now the Republicans have chosen more of the same."
She left  quickly after her speech, departing before Obama's arrival. But his 
supporters  made their presence known, sending up chants of "Obama" from the 
audience as she  made her way offstage.
Obama's winning margins ranged from substantial to  crushing.
He won roughly two-thirds of the vote in Washington state and  Nebraska, and 
almost 90 percent in the Virgin Islands.

Nearly complete Louisiana returns showed Obama with 57 percent of the vote,  
to 36 percent for the former first lady. As in his earlier Southern triumphs 
in  Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, Obama, a black man, rode a wave of  
African-American support to victory in Louisiana. Clinton won the white vote  
overwhelmingly.
In all, the Democrats scrapped for 161 delegates in the  night's contests.
In incomplete allocations, Obama won 72, Clinton  40.

In overall totals in The Associated Press count, Clinton had 1,095  delegates 
to 1,070 for Obama, counting so-called superdelegates. They are party  
leaders not chosen at primaries or caucuses, free to change their minds. A total  of 
2,025 delegates is required to win the nomination at the national convention  
in Denver.

McCain flunked his first ballot tests since becoming the Republican  
nominee-in-waiting. He lost Kansas caucuses to Mike Huckabee, gaining less than  24 
percent of the vote. Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, got nearly 60  
percent of the vote a few hours after saying, "I majored in miracles, and I  still 
believe in them." He won all 36 delegates at stake.

Huckabee also won the Louisiana primary, but fell short of 50 percent, the  
threshold necessary to pocket the 20 delegates that were available. Instead,  
they will be awarded at a state convention next weekend.

In all, the Democrats scrapped for 161 delegates in the night's  contests.
In incomplete allocations, Obama won 72, Clinton 40.

In overall totals in The Associated Press count, Clinton had 1,095  delegates 
to 1,070 for Obama, counting so-called superdelegates. They are party  
leaders not chosen at primaries or caucuses, free to change their minds. A total  of 
2,025 delegates is required to win the nomination at the national convention  
in Denver.
McCain flunked his first ballot tests since becoming the  Republican 
nominee-in-waiting. He lost Kansas caucuses to Mike Huckabee, gaining  less than 24 
percent of the vote. Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, got  nearly 60 
percent of the vote a few hours after saying, "I majored in miracles,  and I still 
believe in them." He won all 36 delegates at stake.

Huckabee also won the Louisiana primary, but fell short of 50 percent, the  
threshold necessary to pocket the 20 delegates that were available. Instead,  
they will be awarded at a state convention next weekend.
McCain won the third  Republican race of the night, Washington's caucuses. 
None of the state's  delegates will be awarded until next week.

For all his brave talk, Huckabee was hopelessly behind in the delegate  race. 
McCain had 719, compared with 234 for Huckabee and 14 for Paul. It takes  
1,191 to win the nomination at the national convention.
The Democrats' race  was as close as the Republicans' was not, a contest 
between Obama, hoping to  become the first black president, and Clinton, 
campaigning to become the first  female commander in chief.
The two rivals contest primaries on Tuesday in  Maryland, Virginia and the 
District of Columbia, all states where Obama and his  campaign are hopeful of 
winning.

Preliminary results of a survey of voters leaving their polling places in  
Louisiana showed that nearly half of those casting ballots were black. As a  
group, African-Americans have overwhelmingly favored Obama in earlier primaries,  
helping him to wins in several Southern states.

Obama was gaining about 80 percent of the black votes statewide, while  
Clinton was winning 70 percent support among whites, the exit poll  showed.
One in seven Democratic voters and about one in 10 Republicans said  
Hurricane Katrina had caused their families severe hardship from which they have  not 
recovered. There was another indication of the impact the storm had on the  
state. Early results suggested that northern Louisiana accounted for a larger  
share of the electorate than in the past, presumably the result of the decline  
in population in the hurricane-battered New Orleans area.

McCain cleared his path to the party nomination earlier in the week with a  
string of Super Tuesday victories that drove Romney from the race. He spent the 
 rest of the week trying to reassure skeptical conservatives, at the same 
time  party leaders quickly closed ranks behind him.

His Kansas defeat aside, McCain also suffered a symbolic defeat when Romney  
edged him out in a straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference  
meeting across town from the White House.
The day's contests opened a new  phase in the Democratic race between Clinton 
and Obama.
The Feb. 5 Super  Tuesday primaries and caucuses in 22 states, which once 
looked likely to  effectively settle the race, instead produced a near-equal 
delegate  split.
That left Obama and Clinton facing the likelihood of a grind-it-out  
competition lasting into spring - if not to the summer convention  itself.

With the night's events, 29 of the 50 states have selected  delegates.
Two more - Michigan and Florida - held renegade primaries and the  Democratic 
National Committee has vowed not to seat any delegates chosen at  either of 
them.

Maine, with 24 delegates, holds caucuses on Sunday. Maryland, Virginia and  
the District of Columbia and voting by Americans overseas are next, on Tuesday, 
 with 175 combined.

Then follows a brief intermission, followed by a string of election nights,  
some crowded, some not.
The date of March 4 looms large, 370 delegates in  primaries in Ohio, Texas, 
Rhode Island and Vermont.
Mississippi is alone in  holding a primary one week later, with a relatively 
small 33 delegates at  stake.
Puerto Rico anchors the Democratic calendar, with 55 delegates chosen  in 
caucuses on June 7.
If Super Tuesday failed to settle the campaign, it  produced a remarkable 
surge in fundraising.
Obama's aides announced he had  raised more than $7 million on line in the 
two days that followed.
Clinton  disclosed she had loaned her campaign $5 million late last month in 
an attempt  to counter her rival's Super Tuesday television advertising. She 
raised more  than $6 million in the two days after the busiest night in primary 
 history.
The television ad wars continued unabated.

Obama has been airing commercials for more than a week in television  markets 
serving every state that has a contest though Feb 19.
Clinton began  airing ads midweek in Washington state, Maine and Nebraska, 
and added Maryland,  Virginia and the District of Columbia on Friday.
The exit poll was conducted  by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky 
International for The Associated Press and  the television networks. 
 



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