Clinton wins Ohio, Texas; McCain clinches Republican nod (2nd Roundup)

Mar 5, 2008, 7:46 GMT

Democratic presidential hopeful New York Senator Hillary Clinton delivers a speech to supporters at her primary night watch party in Columbus, Ohio, USA, 04 March 2008. Clinton won the Ohio Democratic Primary with a majority of the vote. EPA/MICHAL CZERWONKA

Washington - Hillary Clinton stormed back in the Democratic race for the presidential nomination Tuesday, winning the key states of Texas and Ohio and halting rival Barack Obama's 11-state winning streak.

On the Republican side, John McCain captured the Republican nomination with wins in all four states voting on Tuesday as his last challenger, Mike Huckabee, conceded defeat and promised to help unite the party behind the Arizona senator.

Clinton trounced Obama in Ohio, winning 55 per cent to 43 per cent with more than 90 per cent of the votes counted, and television networks projected a narrow victory in the Texas primary, where she led 51 per cent to 47 per cent with 90 per cent of precincts reporting.

The Democratic rivals split Tuesday's small-state primaries with Obama winning Vermont and Clinton taking Rhode Island.

'You know what they say - as Ohio goes, so goes the nation. Well, this nation's coming back, and so is this campaign,' Clinton told ecstatic supporters in Columbus, Ohio.

'Ohio has written a new chapter in the history of this campaign, and we're just getting started.'

Her three victories ended Obama's winning streak in 11 straight state contests, which built nationwide momentum and established him as the clear Democratic frontrunner with a small but meaningful lead in the delegate count.

Obama congratulated Clinton on her wins but stressed that his edge in delegates to the centre-left Democratic Party's nominating convention in August remained intact, given that all states award delegates proportionately.

'No matter what happens tonight, we have nearly the same delegate lead as this morning, and we are on the way to winning this nomination,' Obama told supporters in San Antonio, Texas.

Clinton and Obama will likely split the delegates awarded in Texas, where the state party's arcane rules distribute only two- thirds of the delegates based on the primary vote.

The remaining third were awarded through caucus meetings held late Tuesday. Obama led that contest by 55 per cent to 45 per cent, with 34 per cent of precincts reporting Wednesday morning.

Before Tuesday, Clinton's campaign had been running short of money while combatting Obama's growing image of inevitability. Even former president Bill Clinton had said that his wife had to win in Texas and Ohio to keep alive her hopes of becoming the first female president.

Obama had already been reinforcing his frontrunning position by confronting McCain on his support for the Iraq war.

The now-certain Republican nominee McCain, 71, told cheering supporters Tuesday that the general election 'begins tonight,' and he offered broad outlines of his future campaign strategy.

'My friends, now we begin the most important part of our campaign,' McCain told cheering supporters at a rally in Dallas, Texas.

McCain effectively sealed the Republican nomination weeks ago and has increasingly refocused his presidential campaign on the November 4 general elections.

On Tuesday, he promised victory in Iraq and chided Democrats for focussing on the 2003 invasion.

'It is of little use to Americans for their candidates to avoid the many complex challenges of these struggles by re-litigating decisions of the past,' McCain said.

'The next president must explain how he or she intends to bring that war to the swiftest possible conclusion without exacerbating a sectarian conflict that could quickly descend into genocide, destabilizing the entire Middle East.'

Huckabee said he and his wife would do 'everything we can to help Senator McCain and to help our party' in a concession speech in Texas.

'We will work hard for our country, we will work hard for our party and the nominee, because we love this country and that's why we got in,' he said.

The Clinton and Obama camps have become nastier in recent weeks, exchanging barbs over campaign tactics and highlighting their differences over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), enacted during Bill Clinton's administration.

Clinton aides have lately questioned Obama's relationship with a Chicago developer indicted in a kickback scheme to win state government contracts. Obama charged that Clinton was throwing the 'kitchen sink' in an effort to rescue her bid for the White House.

Clinton has touted her experience in the White House and longer tenure than Obama in the US Senate to argue that she is better prepared for the presidency, and repeated Tuesday that she is ready to take the helm on 'day one.'