Dems push on; McCain reaches out

Hillary Rodham Clinton slowed Barack Obama's recent momentum by winning major states, including California, on Super Tuesday, but the Democratic presidential candidates roughly split the delegates at stake, and contests scheduled over the next three weeks seem to favor the better-funded Obama.

As both campaigns sifted through results and exit polls yesterday, looking for glints of good news, there was one point of consensus: The battle for the nomination could grind on without resolution into the spring or beyond.

Reflecting the general muddle, New Mexico's Democratic caucuses remained undecided. As of late afternoon, Clinton held a 210-vote lead over Obama, with four precincts and 16,870 provisional ballots yet to be counted.

Obama won primaries and caucuses in 13 states Tuesday, including his home state of Illinois. Clinton won eight states, including New York, which she represents in the Senate, and American Samoa.

As of midday yesterday, 14.6 million votes had been counted, and Clinton had 0.4 percent more of them than Obama, CNN tabulated. The Associated Press projected that Clinton was leading with 784 delegates from the Super Tuesday voting to 764 for Obama, with more than 130 yet to be awarded.

In bellwether Missouri, the race was so close that, though Obama edged Clinton in the popular vote, the two split the state's 72 delegates evenly, the AP said.

The AP estimated that Clinton had 1,045 delegates overall to 960 for Obama. It takes 2,025 delegates to win the nomination this summer at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

There were clear divisions along racial, sex and class lines, according to exit polls of Tuesday's vote; Clinton supporters, for instance, were older, whiter and poorer.

Analysts say both candidates can continue a war of attrition because of the proportional way the party awards delegates, and they note that the fight could well come down to one for the support of about 800 super-delegates - party leaders who are not bound by primary or caucus results.

Obama argued yesterday that he would be the strongest nominee, saying the Republicans would have a "dump truck of dirt" to unload on Clinton. He also sought to undercut her long-standing argument that she has been toughened by years of Republican attacks when she was first lady.

"I have to just respond by saying that the Clinton research operation is about as good as anybody's out there," Obama said during a news conference in Chicago. "I assure you that having engaged in a contest against them for the last year, that they've pulled out all the stops. And you know I think what is absolutely true is whoever the Democratic nominee is, the Republicans will go after them."

Clinton said she was the better candidate.

"If voters start to think about who would be the best president, to be commander in chief on Day One, to turn the economy around, and who would be the best Democratic nominee to win in November, I am very comfortable with the answers to those questions," she said during a news conference in Arlington, Va.

Clinton, meanwhile, said she lent her campaign $5 million of her own money last month, when Obama raised $32 million to her $13.5 million and was able to outspend her in advertising in the 22 states that held Democratic contests Tuesday.

"I loaned it because I believe in this campaign," Clinton said. "We intended to be competitive, and we were."

Obama was heading late yesterday to Louisiana, where he is favored to win the state's primary Saturday because of his advantage among black voters. Nebraska and Washington state also hold caucuses Saturday, a format that has favored Obama.

The Illinois senator is also expected to be strong in next Tuesday's "Potomac Primaries" - in Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia - all of which have relatively large African American electorates.

Clinton advisers said she would concentrate her efforts on Ohio and Texas, large states that hold primaries March 4, and where polling shows her with significant leads.

She also is looking ahead to Pennsylvania's primary April 22, which has a large population of older voters - one of the strongest blocs in her coalition so far - and where she also enjoys support from party leaders, including Gov. Rendell and Mayor Nutter.

"People are nervous right now - these are her lean times," said David Dunphy, a Philadelphia-based Democratic strategist who is not working on the presidential race. "Hillary has to keep her team energized for a month when they'll probably not win a race and momentum is building for Obama, even if the delegate count" is even.

"The roller-coaster ride continues," said Mark Aronchick, a Philadelphia lawyer who is one of Clinton's leading fund-raisers. "We're flat-out determined to do our part, and this is Clinton Country. Neither side is going to lack for resources."

Howard Wolfson, Clinton's communications director, called for one debate a week between the two Democrats leading up to the March 4 primaries.

"We won the votes of people who decided on the last day," Wolfson said of the Super Tuesday results, citing exit polls and attributing that to Clinton's debate performances.

Obama's campaign has said he will debate but has not committed himself to Wolfson's proposal.