WASHINGTON - 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 Island, completing his best night of the campaign.
His winning margins were substantial, ranging from roughly two-thirds of the vote in Washington state and Nebraska to nearly 90 percent in the Virgin Islands. With returns counted from more than one-third of the Louisiana precincts, he was gaining 53 percent of the vote, to 39 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 made no mention of the night's contests as she appeared at a Democratic Party dinner in Virginia, site of one of three primaries this Tuesday.
Instead, she criticized Arizona Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee in all but name. ``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 scheduled arrival. But his supporters made their presence known, as chants of ``Obama'' floated up from the audience as she made her way offstage.
In all, the Democrats scrapped for 161 delegates in the night's contests.
In initial allocations, Obama had won 31, Clinton nine.
In overall totals in The Associated Press count, Clinton had 1,064 delegates to 1,029 for Obama. A total of 2,025 is required to win the nomination at the national convention in Denver.
The Democratic race moved into a new, post-Super Tuesday phase as McCain flunked his first ballot test 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 telling conservatives in Washington, ``I majored in miracles, and I still believe in them.'' He won all 36 delegates at stake.
Huckabee also edged ahead of McCain in caucuses in Washington, and in Louisiana's primary, where he was close to gaining 50 percent of the vote, the requirement for pocketing 20 delegates.
For all his brave talk, Huckabee was hopelessly behind in the delegate race. McCain had 719, compared with 234 for Huckabee and 14 for Texas Rep. Ron Paul. It takes 1,191 to win the nomination at the national convention.
Wednesday
July 16th, 2025
3:40AM
