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Obama wins primaries clean sweep

13 February 2008 08:24 (UTC +04:00)

John McCain is also on course for a clean sweep in all three Republican contests, beating Mike Huckabee.Mr Obamaâ€™s wins are set to put him ahead of Hillary Clinton in the race for delegates to select the partyâ€™s candidate for the presidential poll.
Mrs Clinton must now focus her efforts on races in Ohio and Texas on 4 March.
Speaking to cheering supporters at an election night rally in Wisconsin, which is next to hold its primary on 19 February, Mr Obama welcomed the results.
"The change we seek swept through Chesapeake and over the Potomac. We won the state of Maryland. We won the Commonwealth of Virginia.
"And though we won in Washington DC, this movement wonâ€™t stop until thereâ€™s change in Washington DC - and tonight weâ€™re on our way."
Each Democratic candidate is about halfway to winning the 2,025 delegates needed to secure victory at the partyâ€™s national convention in August.
But according to the Associated Press (AP) news agency, Mr Obama has now edged into the lead when both pledged delegates, whose vote is determined by the result of the primary in their state, and super delegates, who can choose whom to back, are counted.
At a campaign rally in El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday night, Mrs Clinton gave a forward-looking speech, saying her message would "sweep across Texas in the next three weeks".
"Iâ€™m tested, Iâ€™m ready, letâ€™s make it happen," she told supporters.
Mrs Clintonâ€™s deputy campaign manager, Mike Henry, has reportedly stepped down following the results, in a shake-up coming only a day after her campaign manager was replaced.
Meanwhile, Mr McCain told a rally in Alexandria, Virginia: "We have come a long way in this campaign, and we have had our ups and downs.
"But as luck, that product of opportunity and industry, would have it we are approaching the end of the first half of this election on quite an upswing."
Borrowing one of Mr Obamaâ€™s regular campaign slogans, he promised supporters: "I am fired up and ready to go."
With results counted in almost all of Virginiaâ€™s precincts, Mr McCain led by 50% to Mr Huckabeeâ€™s 41%.
In the District of Columbia, Mr McCain took 67% of the Republican vote to 17% for Mr Huckabee, with almost all the votes counted. Congressman Ron Paul took 8%.
Mr McCainâ€™s victories mean he extends his significant lead in terms of the number of delegates who will vote for him at the partyâ€™s national convention.
But correspondents say Mr McCain still has some work to do to unite his party, amid continuing criticisms from leading party members who have questioned his conservative credentials.
Mr Huckabee has been under pressure to stand aside for the sake of party unity, but has said he has no intention of pulling out.
Exit polls suggest he won the support of very conservative voters in Virginia by nearly three to one, while Mr McCain was backed by somewhat conservative and moderate Republicans.
In Virginia, Mr Obama was leading by 64% to Mrs Clintonâ€™s 35%, with almost all precincts reporting.
His margin of victory was even greater in Washington DC, where he led by 75% to 24% with almost all the votes counted.
Virginia was the biggest prize with 83 delegates up for grabs, of which 50 went to Obama, according to AP. Maryland has 70 and Washington DC has 15 to be split between the pair.
Analysts suggested the most significant aspect of Mr Obamaâ€™s success, which had been expected based on polling, was his broadening appeal across different demographic groups.
Exit polls conducted for AP in Virginia suggested Mr Obama had won the support of two-thirds of men and almost six in 10 women.
Nine in 10 black voters in Virginia backed the Illinois senator, according to the exit polls, an even bigger margin than in previous primaries. They made up about three in 10 of the stateâ€™s voters.
Exit polls also indicated Mr Obama had made gains with women voters, who have been a core constituency for Mrs Clinton in past contests, and with white men and Latino voters.
The economy was the top issue for both Democratic and Republican voters in the so-called "Potomac primary", named after the river that runs through the two states and the nationâ€™s capital.
The contests follow Mr Obamaâ€™s weekend victories in Washington state, Louisiana, Nebraska, Maine and the US Virgin Islands.
Mrs Clinton was given a potential boost on Tuesday with the endorsement of former astronaut and former Ohio Senator John Glenn.
She and Mr Obama face a long, drawn-out battle after neither was able to deliver a knockout blow in the 22 state contests of Super Tuesday on 5 February. /APA/