Illinois senator wins 3 primaries for delegate lead
WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama powered past Hillary Rodham Clinton in the race for Democratic convention delegates Tuesday, scoring outsized primary victories in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia on a night of triumph.
"Tonight we're on our way," he told cheering supporters in Madison, Wis. "But we know how much further we have to go on," Obama added, celebrating eight straight victories over Clinton, the former first lady now struggling in a race she once commanded.
The Associated Press count of delegates showed Obama with 1,186. Clinton had 1,181, falling behind for the first time since the campaign began. Neither was close to the 2,025 needed to win the nomination.
His victories were by large margins -- he was gaining about 75 percent of the vote in the nation's capital and about two-thirds in Virginia.
By contrast, Clinton was attempting to retool her campaign in the midst of a losing streak. Her deputy campaign manager resigned, the second high-level departure in as many days.
Campaigning in Texas, where she hopes to triumph on March 4, she said she was looking ahead, not back.
"I'm tested, I'm ready. Now let's make it happen," she said.
Republican front-runner John McCain won all three GOP primaries, adding to his insurmountable lead in delegates for the Republican nomination.
"We know where either of their candidates will lead this country, and we dare not let them," he said of the Democrats. "They will paint a picture of the world in which America's mistakes are a greater threat to our security than the malevolent intentions of an enemy that despises us and our ideals."
McCain spoke before supporters in Alexandria, Va.
Interviews with voters leaving the polls in Maryland and Virginia showed Obama split the white vote with Clinton, and his share of the black vote approached 90 percent. She led among white women, but he was preferred by a majority of white men.
Icy roads in Maryland prompted a judge to order a 90-minute extension in voting hours, delaying returns and the allocation of delegates there.
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