By Arun Kumar, IANS
Washington : Super Tuesday’s battle for presidential nominations ended in a virtual dead heat for Democrats with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama carving up the country, while John McCain took a big lead among Republicans.
In the biggest day of primaries to pick nominees for the Nov 4 poll, Obama, hoping to be America’s first black president won 13 states, Clinton aspiring to be the first woman to occupy the oval office took eight in the coast-to-coast contests in 22 states.
But Clinton’s wins included the key prizes of California and New York, making for a virtual draw in the hard-fought Democratic duel and pointing to a prolonged struggle for party nomination.
The Clinton and Obama camps said they expected Tuesday’s delegate count to wind up relatively even. Overall, by early Wednesday, Clinton had 845 delegates and Obama 765, the Washington Post said, well short of the 2,025 either needs to win the nomination.
A new round of contests in a half-dozen states are scheduled within the next week, including Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. These are likely to give a clearer idea whether Obama can continue his surge against Clinton.
But the Republicans seemed closer to picking up their nominee with Vietnam War veteran John McCain winning nine contests, including victories in California and the Northeast, to take a commanding lead in the Republican race.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won seven states, while former Arkansas governor’s Mike Huckabee, a Baptist preacher, won five.
The Post said McCain now had 613 delegates to Romney’s 269 and Huckabee’s 190, with 1,191 needed to win. McCain, who lost the Republican primary race in 2000 to George W. Bush, still faces a struggle to win over conservatives in the party, who oppose his views on immigration, tax cuts and campaign finance reform.
As Romney and Huckabee vowed to fight on, the New York Times said Huckabee underlined Romney’s weakness by posting a series of victories, in a performance that highlighted the discomfort social conservatives have with the field.
“Huckabee’s relatively strong showing was both a blessing and a curse for McCain, though perhaps more of a blessing,” it said. “It injected a small note of uncertainty into the Republican race, and potentially delayed the day when Mr. McCain would have the stage to himself.”
But Huckabee appeared to drain votes primarily away from Romney, contributing to his overall weak showing on this night.
“This split in the road for Democrats and Republicans should – if and when McCain can claim his party’s nomination – be a welcome development for McCain, who would have time to begin quelling doubts about him among conservatives,” the Times said.
The consensus in the US media Wednesday was that Democratic contests left the race still up in the air with USA Today saying the Democratic contest “sprinted through 22 states Tuesday and emerged as it was before: deadlocked”.
The New York Times said it was “a night when neither” Obama nor Clinton “could decisively lay claim – or even secure an edge – to the nomination, assuring an electoral fight that will unfold for weeks to come”.
The Wall Street Journal noted the rules “governing allocation of delegates” are “certain to keep the race going in the states to come”.
The Los Angeles Times said Clinton and Obama “duelled to a Super Tuesday draw, capturing states big and small and padding their delegate counts in a Democratic contest that remains highly competitive”.
The New York Times said exit polls “showed formidable strengths for each candidate, with Obama gaining appeal with white voters – particularly white men – and Clinton solidifying her support among Hispanics”.
The Washington Post said the elections “laid bare a profound racial and ethnic divide among Democratic voters, with African Americans overwhelmingly preferring Barack Obama, while Latinos largely favoured Hillary Clinton”.
Clinton “did well with seniors, low-income voters and registered Democrats. Obama was strong with independents, younger people, the affluent and the highly educated,” added USA Today.