Obama Makes It Double Figures Ahead of Hillary

By Christopher Denshaw

Barack Obama won the Wisconsin primary and the Hawaii Democratic caucuses yesterday, giving him 10 straight triumphs over Hillary Clinton in their battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Mr Obama won his native state by outdrawing Mrs Clinton among voters who turned out in record numbers at caucus sites across Hawaii.

Hours earlier, the Illinois senator scored a double-digit win over Mrs Clinton in the Wisconsin primary.

John McCain, the Republican front-runner, won a pair of primaries in Wisconsin and Washington state to edge closer to clinching his nomination.

Mr Obama’s triumphs left former first lady Mrs Clinton in desperate need of a comeback in a race she long commanded as front- runner.

Mrs Clinton, who a few months ago appeared to be the inevitable nominee, has been quickly losing ground and is now pinning her hopes on March 4 primaries in Ohio and Texas, as well as Pennsylvania on April 22.

In a race growing increasingly negative, Mr Obama cut deeply into Mrs Clinton’s political bedrock in Wisconsin, splitting the support of white women almost evenly with her. According to polling place interviews, he also ran well among working-class voters in the Midwestern state that was a prelude to primaries in the larger industrial states of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

With the votes counted in nearly all of Wisconsin’s precincts, Mr Obama was winning 58 per of the vote to 41 per cent for Mrs Clinton.

Mr Obama has now won 10 straight primaries and caucuses since he battled Mrs Clinton to a split decision in the 22 Democratic contests on Super Tuesday, February 5.

“The change we seek is still months and miles away,” Mr Obama told a boisterous crowd in Houston in a speech in which he also pledged to end the war in Iraq in his first year in office, drawing a sharp contrast with Mr McCain who supports the war and opposes any early withdrawal.

“I opposed this war in 2002. I will bring this war to an end in 2009. It is time to bring our troops home,” he declared.

Mrs Clinton made no mention of her defeat, and showed no sign of surrender as she pressed her case that Mr Obama offers little more than talk.

“It’s about picking a president who relies not just on words, but on work, hard work, to get America back to work,” she said at a labour rally in Youngstown, Ohio. “Someone who’s not just in the speeches business.”

The New York senator did her best to push on, bluntly challenging Mr Obama on his fitness to lead.

“Only one of us is ready on day one to be commander in chief, ready to manage our economy, and ready to defeat the Republicans,” she said to cheers.

In a clear sign of their relative standing in the race, most cable television networks abruptly cut away from coverage of Mrs Clinton’s rally when Mr Obama began to speak in Texas.

Mr McCain won the Republican primary with ease, dispatching former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and edging closer to the 1,191 delegates the Arizona senator needs to clinch the Republican nomination at the party convention in St Paul, Minnesota, next summer. He also overwhelmingly won the primary in Washington, with 19 delegates at stake.

In thinly veiled criticism of Mr Obama, the Republican nominee- in-waiting said, “I will fight every moment of every day in this campaign to make sure that Americans are not deceived by an eloquent but empty call for change.”

Trying to draw a further contrast with Mr Obama, the 45-year-old first-term senator, the 71-year-old added: “I’m not the youngest candidate. But I am the most experienced.”

Mr McCain’s nomination has been assured since Super Tuesday three weeks ago, as first one, then another of his former rivals has dropped out and the party establishment has closed ranks behind him.

This is not the case in the Democratic race, however, where Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton campaign seven days a week, he the strongest black presidential candidate in US history, she bidding to become the first woman to sit in the White House.

Ohio and Texas vote next on March 4, and even some of Mrs Clinton’s supporters concede she must win one, and possibly both, to remain competitive. Two smaller states, Vermont and Rhode Island, also have primaries that day when 370 delegates in all will be at stake.

Wisconsin offered 74 national convention delegates. There were 20 delegates at stake in Hawaii, where Mr Obama spent much of his youth.

Meanwhile, NBC News has reprimanded a graphics department employee who flashed a picture of Osama bin Laden on MSNBC as a moderator talked about Barack Obama.

“This mistake was inexcusable,” said a spokesman .

“I opposed this war in 2002. I will bring this war to an end in 2009 Barack Obama

(c) 2008 Birmingham Post; Birmingham (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.