When I Am President Of The United States...Already speaking like the presumptive nominee who can actually beat Senator John McCain, the Black Senator from illinois is claiming major wins in the Nebraska and Washington caucuses, as well as the Louisiana state primary.
Barack Obama gave New York Senator Hillary Clinton a serious beatdown Saturday night in a bid to chip away at her now fragile delegate lead in a historic, unprecedent race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Mr. Obama was winning nearly 70 per cent support in Nebraska, compared with 31 per cent for Ms. Clinton, in caucuses with 24 delegates at stake. He also had 67 per cent support in Washington state caucuses, compared with 32 per cent for Ms. Clinton with returns tallied from about one-half of the state's precincts. There were 78 delegates at stake, the largest single prize of the night.
With about 24% of the results in Washington, Obama was winning 65% of delegates to New York Sen. Hillary Clinton’s 33%. Obama was running strong across the state, winning at caucus sites in a wide variety of communities from Seattle to Yakima and Renton to Chehalis, the AP said.
The results seems to match up with local reports earlier. The Seattle Times’s David Postman blogged earlier that: “Democrats are e-mailing me results from their caucuses. Every one I’ve seen so far shows Obama winning easily. It’s only a small number and only from a few places so far. That includes precincts in Seattle, all points in Bellevue, Mercer Island, and Port Townsend. I’ll be particularly interested in seeing Pierce County results where Clinton is expected to do better.”
On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee has taken an early lead over rival John McCain.
With 25 percent of Democratic precincts reporting, Obama led Hillary Clinton 52-39 percent. Huckabee led McCain 47-38 percent, with a quarter of Republican precincts reporting.
Obama was projected to take Washington state and Nebraska by a substantial margin, and Huckabee scored a resounding win in Kansas. Huckabee won all 36 of the Kansas delegates at stake. Obama and Huckabee have done well in caucus states like Iowa, where grass-roots efforts are more likely to have greater influence. Obama also picked up a boost in Washington with the endorsement of the state's governor, Christine Gregoire.
On the Republican side, McCain and Huckabee were running a close race for first in Washington. Texas Rep. Ron Paul was trailing them by about 5 percentage points. Saturday's Republican contests in Kansas, Louisiana and Washington could predict whether the party will line up behind McCain as its candidate or provide Huckabee with an opportunity to zing the presumptive nominee.
"People across America are gravitating toward our campaign and realizing that there is still a choice. And that's what we've said all along, that this race is far from being over," Huckabee said after the results came in. Watch what Huckabee says about the results »
Kansas marked the first contest without former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who suspended his campaign Thursday. The results of the caucuses could indicate that the Republican party is not entirely ready to line up behind McCain, the Arizona senator who has had several rifts with conservatives. See state-by-state analysis.
"I know the pundits, and I know what they say: The math doesn't work out," Huckabee said Saturday morning at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. "Well, I didn't major in math, I majored in miracles. And I still believe in those, too." [CNN]