Clinton wins Ohio and Texas, McCain claims Republican mantle

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Democrat Hillary Clinton racked up stunning primary victories over Barack Obama in Ohio and Texas, reinvigorating her White House hopes and setting the stage for an epic nominating end-game.

Clinton’s comeback prolonged the longest and costliest nominating race in US history and ensured weeks or months more of bruising battle for the right to face John McCain, who clinched the Republican mantle on Tuesday. “I think what’s important is this campaign has turned a corner.It is about who is strongest against the Republican nominee John McCain….What happened yesterday is that voters said, look, we want somebody who can go toe-to-toe with John McCain on national security,” Clinton told CNN television early yesterday.President George W Bush was scheduled to welcome McCain for lunch at the White House yesterday and was expected to endorse his one-time rival, addressing the media alongside the man he hopes will succeed him in January 2009.The feisty senator and former first lady, her campaign threatened with oblivion, took Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island, ending Obama’s 12-contest win streak after he started the evening with a victory in Vermont.In the days running up to Tuesday, most polls had Obama ahead in Texas and Ohio and nipping at Clinton’s heels in Rhode Island.Basking in the unaccustomed role of underdog, Clinton (60) said the results heralded a “new chapter in this historic campaign” and told a rally in Ohio that “we’re going all the way” to the White House.But Obama (46), a freshman senator from Illinois, stressed she still faced tough odds to overhaul his lead of about 100 in the race for the 2 025 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.While Clinton nailed down the popular vote, Obama’s camp tried to deflect attention by focusing on ‘delegate maths’.”The bottom line though is we come out of the evening essentially the same lead in delegates as we had going in,” Obama told Fox television yesterday.Previously Obama’s camp has talked about “the will of the people”.But some analysts predicted that given the Democrats’ system of attributing delegates by proportional vote, the fight could go all the way to the Democratic convention in August with the outcome decided by non-elected “superdelegates” – party luminaries who can vote as they like.With nearly all precincts reporting in Ohio, Clinton had a 54-44 per cent edge over Obama.She led 51-47 per cent in Texas, which followed its primary vote with caucuses in a two-step delegate selection process.Obama won the small state of Vermont with a large margin as expected, and Clinton easily took Rhode Island.”I think what’s noteworthy is a lot of pundits thought we were coming tonight to a funeral for Hillary Clinton,” said Paul Begala, a former aide to president Bill Clinton.”Instead we saw a resurrection.”Obama has now had three opportunities to knock out Clinton, but has failed to seal the deal.Clinton’s emphasis on the economy and national security appeared to hit home on Tuesday, as did her never-say-die attitude.”Voters faced a critical question.Who is tested and ready to be commander in chief on day one? And who knows how to turn our economy around, because we sure do need it,” Clinton told the Ohio rally late Tuesday.”We have two wars abroad, we have a recession looming here at home.””I think what’s important is this campaign has turned a corner.It is about who is strongest against the Republican nominee John McCain….What happened yesterday is that voters said, look, we want somebody who can go toe-to-toe with John McCain on national security,” Clinton told CNN television early yesterday.President George W Bush was scheduled to welcome McCain for lunch at the White House yesterday and was expected to endorse his one-time rival, addressing the media alongside the man he hopes will succeed him in January 2009.The feisty senator and former first lady, her campaign threatened with oblivion, took Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island, ending Obama’s 12-contest win streak after he started the evening with a victory in Vermont.In the days running up to Tuesday, most polls had Obama ahead in Texas and Ohio and nipping at Clinton’s heels in Rhode Island.Basking in the unaccustomed role of underdog, Clinton (60) said the results heralded a “new chapter in this historic campaign” and told a rally in Ohio that “we’re going all the way” to the White House.But Obama (46), a freshman senator from Illinois, stressed she still faced tough odds to overhaul his lead of about 100 in the race for the 2 025 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.While Clinton nailed down the popular vote, Obama’s camp tried to deflect attention by focusing on ‘delegate maths’.”The bottom line though is we come out of the evening essentially the same lead in delegates as we had going in,” Obama told Fox television yesterday.Previously Obama’s camp has talked about “the will of the people”.But some analysts predicted that given the Democrats’ system of attributing delegates by proportional vote, the fight could go all the way to the Democratic convention in August with the outcome decided by non-elected “superdelegates” – party luminaries who can vote as they like.With nearly all precincts reporting in Ohio, Clinton had a 54-44 per cent edge over Obama.She led 51-47 per cent in Texas, which followed its primary vote with caucuses in a two-step delegate selection process.Obama won the small state of Vermont with a large margin as expected, and Clinton easily took Rhode Island.”I think what’s noteworthy is a lot of pundits thought we were coming tonight to a funeral for Hillary Clinton,” said Paul Begala, a former aide to president Bill Clinton.”Instead we saw a resurrection.”Obama has now had three opportunities to knock out Clinton, but has failed to seal the deal.Clinton’s emphasis on the economy and national security appeared to hit home on Tuesday, as did her never-say-die attitude.”Voters faced a critical question.Who is tested and ready to be commander in chief on day one? And who knows how to turn our economy around, because we sure do need it,” Clinton told the Ohio rally late Tuesday.”We have two wars abroad, we have a recession looming here at home.”