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 No knockout in Dem contest
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hillary Rodham Clinton scored three victories in a night of revival that denied Barack Obama a ripe opportunity to drive her from the Democratic presidential race. Clarity came only to the Republican side, where John McCain made the nomination his own.
Clinton won the big races in Ohio and Texas, as well as Rhode Island, to break her costly losing streak, and asserted, "This nation's coming back and so is this campaign." But Obama came away with a large share of delegates, too, meaning he's got a lead that's tough to overcome.
McCain's long-slog victory was a striking achievement in a party once wary of his famously independent ways, now his party to lead in the November election.
The Arizona senator won a final validation -- an invitation to the White House on Wednesday to receive the endorsement of President Bush, his nemesis in a past campaign, in a symbolic closing of the ranks.
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Clinton wins. Now what?
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congratulations, Hillary Rodham Clinton. You did what your husband said you had to do and won Ohio and Texas.
Now what?
"Tonight we won three out of four contests and began a new chapter in this historical campaign," the victorious Clinton told reporters on her campaign plane.
But even if she wins every contest left, Clinton still would have a hard time overcoming Barack Obama's pledged delegate lead. In fact, her task got even harder because even though she won Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island Tuesday night, she didn't do much to close the delegate gap
-- and with every contest that passes, the number up for grabs drops.
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McCain clinches GOP nomination
WASHINGTON (AP) -- John McCain clinched the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, an extraordinary comeback for a candidate whose White House hopes were dashed eight years ago and whose second bid was left for dead eight months ago.
"The most important race begins," he said in an Associated Press interview.
According to the AP count, the four-term Arizona senator surpassed the requisite 1,191 GOP delegates as voters in Ohio, Vermont, Rhode Island and Texas put him over the threshold. The triumph came one month after his Super Tuesday coast-to-coast victories gave him an insurmountable lead in the delegate hunt and forced his chief rival, Mitt Romney, to drop out of the race.
"It's a very humbling thing, and I say that with all sincerity," McCain said of finally clinching the nomination.
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Huckabee drops out
IRVING, Texas (AP) -- Mike Huckabee bowed to reality Tuesday and out of the Republican presidential race.
"We kept the faith," he told his end-of-the-road rally Tuesday after John McCain clinched the nomination. "I'd rather lose an election than lose the principles that got me into politics in the first place."
The genial conservative went out as he had campaigned all along, with a quip: "It's time for us to hit the reset button."
Huckabee won the leadoff Iowa caucuses, making him a sudden but short-lived sensation, and then seven other states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia, Louisiana and Kansas. Meantime, McCain piled up big victories on his way to winning the prize on Tuesday night.
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THE DEMOCRATS
Hillary Rodham Clinton is in the District of Columbia. Barack Obama is in Chicago.
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THE REPUBLICANS
John McCain plans to meet with President Bush at the White House.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"The big battle's to come," McCain said of the general election. "I have no intention of resigning from the Senate, but I will discuss it more."
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STAT OF THE DAY:
Without winning Ohio, no Republican has won the White House in more than a century, and only two Democrats have done so.
[Associated
Press]
Compiled by Hope Yen.
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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