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California goes to Clinton
06/02/2008 09:03 - (SA)
Washington - Democrat Barack Obama and
rival Hillary Clinton split key Super Tuesday victories and
Republican John McCain won nine states but failed to knock out
his rivals in presidential nominating contests in 24 US
states.
In their hard-fought duel for the Democratic nomination,
Obama won 12 states and Clinton took eight but that included
the two biggest prizes of the night - California and New York
- on the biggest day of US presidential voting ahead of
November's election.
"There is one thing on this February night that we do not
need the final results to know: Our time has come," Obama told
cheering supporters in Chicago. "Our movement is real, and
change is coming to America."
McCain had hoped to nail down the nomination with a big
night and his nine wins included California and several big
Northeastern states, but rival Mitt Romney took six states and
Mike Huckabee won five.
"Tonight, I think we must get used to the idea that we are
the Republican Party frontrunner for the nomination," McCain
said in Scottsdale, Arizona. "And I don't really mind it one
bit."
The biggest prize of the night was California, which offers
the country's biggest haul of delegates to party conventions
that choose the parties' presidential candidates for the November 4 election to succeed President George W Bush. US media had predicted Clinton and McCain would win.
The mixed outcome in the coast-to-coast voting, with all
contenders in both parties scoring at least five wins, appeared
certain to prolong the hard-fought nominating races in both
parties. More contests in a half-dozen states are slated in the
coming week.
The Clinton and Obama camps said they expected the count of
delegates for the night to be relatively even. "This is not
going to be decided tonight," Democratic Party Chairperson Howard
Dean said on MSNBC.
National exit polls showed more than half of Democratic
voters ranked the ability to bring change as the top attribute
for a candidate. Nearly one-quarter of Democrats voting in the
party's 22 contests ranked experience, Clinton's selling card,
as the most important attribute.
About 44% of Republican voters preferred a candidate
who shared their values, while one-quarter wanted a candidate
with experience.
More than half the total delegates to the Democratic
convention in August and about 40% of the delegates to
the Republican convention in September will be apportioned in
Tuesday's voting.
Economic worries - plunging housing values, rising energy
and food prices, jittery financial markets and new data showing
a big contraction in the service sector - eclipsed the Iraq
war as voters' top concern in both parties, exit polls showed.
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