WASHINGTON — Barack Obama went three for three on Saturday, winning the Nebraska and Washington Democratic caucuses and taking the Louisiana Democratic primary over opponent Hillary Clinton. He then took the cherry on top with a Virgin Islands caucuses victory.
Mike Huckabee also had a good day Saturday, pulling out a strong win over John McCain in the Kansas Republican caucuses earlier in the day. The Washington Republican caucus results and Louisiana primary were too close to call with 37 percent and half of respective precincts reporting. Ron Paul was trailing closely behind McCain in Washington with 21 percent of the vote.
Obama won Nebraska with 68 percent support compared to 32 percent for Clinton. Obama's win there was largely attributed to Omaha, which gave Obama a big lead early on. Lancaster County, home of the state capital of Lincoln, favored Obama by a 58-42 margin.
Obama also had 68 percent support in Washington state caucuses, compared with 31 percent for Clinton with returns tallied from 96 percent of the state's precincts. Obama was above 50 percent in Louisiana with more than half of polls counted there.
But FOX News exit polling showed Obama won both high- and low-income voters and the majority of women, 54 percent to Clinton's 45 percent. One in five Louisiana Democratic voters also live in a union household, and they picked Obama 56 percent to 41 percent for Clinton. Black voters picked Obama by more than 80 percent.
linton did do well with seniors, 63 percent to Obama's 35 percent, and white voters, who supported her 69 percent to Obama's 28 percent. For those looking for a candidate with the right experience, 11 times as many picked Clinton over Obama, 89 percent to 8 percent.
On the Republican side, Louisiana voters who made up their minds in the last few days -- since Super Tuesday and Mitt Romney's suspension of his campaign --- split their vote, 48 percent for Huckabee and 45 percent for McCain.
Voters who want a candidate who shares their values were picking Huckabee by 64 percent to McCain's 20 percent.
One in five Louisiana Republican voters identified themselves as "moderates" and they went for McCain 55 percent to 30 percent for Huckabee. Those GOP voters who say they attend church at least once a week picked Huckabee by double digits, compared to those who attend occasionally giving a double-digit advantage to McCain.
For Democrats, 161 delegates were at stake Saturday, and 24 are available in Maine's Democratic caucuses on Sunday. Obama's win gives him huge momentum going into Tuesday's "Potomac Primaries" -- in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., where he is favored in polling, and which have 175 delegates at stake.
Coming out of Super Tuesday, Clinton and Obama were effectively tied. Tallies before the Saturday showdowns had Clinton with 1,055 delegates and Obama with 998. The Democratic contestants need 2,025 delegates to win the nomination.
The still airtight race likely will go on for many weeks with 370 delegates at stake on March 4 in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont. Without a sweep of wins in the upcoming contests, the Democratic race could come down to the convention in August, which some party officials dread will happen.
"I knew that I'd be the underdog in every contest from January to June, I knew it wouldn't be easy. But then something started to happen, as we met people in their living rooms and on their farms, around churches and town hall meetings and VFW halls. They all started to tell the same story," Obama told the Virginia Jefferson Jackson Dinner in Richmond. "We are tired of being disappointed by our politicians. We are tired of being let down, we are tired of hearing promises made in 10-point plans" and then never being met "because politicians start worrying about how they win the next election rather than why they should win the next election. While Washington is consumed with the same drama and division and distraction, another family puts up a for sale sign in their yard ... another mother declares bankruptcy ... another soldier waves goodbye as he leaves for a tour of duty in a war that never should have been authorized and never should have been waged," he continued. Clinton too spoke to the audience at the dinner that capped a day of campaigning that included Maine and Washington state. As her losses were coming in, Clinton tried to move the race away from the primary and focused on the general election. "With Senator McCain as the likely Republican nominee, Republicans have chosen more of the same. President Bush has already put his stamp of approval on Sen McCain's conservative credentials, and I'm sure that will help," she said. Clinton's campaign downplayed expectations ahead of the evening's results. Depicting Clinton as the underdog financially, spokesman Phil Singer said the states in contention Saturday were contests where "the Obama campaign has long predicted they would win by large margins." Obama raised $32 million in January, compared to Clinton, who raised $13.5 million and then lent her campaign $5 million of her personal fortune on top of that. Both candidates raised close to $7 million in the two days after Super Tuesday. "The Obama campaign has dramatically outspent our campaign in these three states, saturating the airwaves with 30 and 60 second ads," Singer said. "Although the next several states that hold nominating contests this month are more favorable to the Obama campaign, we will continue to compete in them and hope to secure as many delegates as we can before the race turns to Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania." For Republicans, 1,191 delegates are needed. John McCain had 719 delegates compared to Huckabee's 234 delegates after his Kansas win. An additional 38 pledged delegates were at stake in Louisiana and Washington. McCain's campaign has said the earliest the Arizona senator could seal the nomination with the needed 1,191 delegates is the March 4 primary. Huckabee would have to win 83 percent of Republican votes to take that win away from McCain, but his win in Kansas demonstrated the lingering rift in the party after McCain was minted the clear front-runner Super Tuesday. Huckabee beat McCain by a margin of three-to-one. Huckabee had the support of anti-abortion activists, while McCain had the backing from conservative Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback. McCain is trying to reach out to conservatives, many of whom are skeptical of him for taking moderate positions on campaign finance, taxes and immigration. Huckabee pledged Saturday morning at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., that he would be staying in the race, even though Mitt Romney's exit earlier in the week made McCain the virtual heir to the GOP nomination. "This is a huge win for us," Huckabee campaign manager Chip Saltsman said after the vote. "This is a state that both candidates competed in. This shows that Washington pundits don't pick the nominee. The folks in the states and outside the Beltway pick the nominee. So not so fast, we still have a long way to go until the nominee is picked, with 20-plus states left." McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker downplayed the Kansas loss, saying in a statement, "Our campaign fully expected to fall short in the Kansas caucus. John McCain is the presumptive nominee in this race, our path forward is unchanged by today's results, and our focus remains the same: uniting the Republican party to defeat Democrats in 2008."
