Clinton stays alive, McCain wins nomination

Hillary Clinton swept critical showdowns with Barack Obama in Ohio and Texas on Tuesday to keep her Democratic presidential bid alive, and John McCain clinched the Republican nomination and looked ahead to the November election.

The victories for Mrs Clinton, a New York senator, snapped Mr Obama's winning streak at 12 and defied widespread predictions that defeats in Ohio and Texas would force her out of the White House race.

The hard-fought Democratic presidential duel moves on to contests in Wyoming and Mississippi and the next major showdown in Pennsylvania on April 22, with Mrs Clinton still trailing Mr Obama in the pledged delegates who will choose the nominee at the August convention. "We're going on, we're going strong, and we're going all the way," Mrs Clinton, 60, told roaring supporters in Columbus, Ohio. "We're just getting started."

Mr McCain's four big victories in Vermont, Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island drove his last major rival, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, out of the race and gave Mr McCain more than the 1,191 delegates needed to win the nomination.

President George W. Bush endorsed the Arizona senator at the White House yesterday, capping Mr McCain's comeback from the political scrap heap last year when his campaign was down in the polls and counted out.

"I am very pleased to note that tonight, my friends, we have won enough delegates to claim with confidence, humility and a sense of great responsibility that I will be the Republican nominee for President of the US," Mr McCain, 71, told supporters in Dallas.

"The contest begins tonight," the former Navy fighter pilot and prisoner of war in Vietnam said, looking ahead to a match-up with either Mr Obama or Mr Clinton in November.

Exit polls showed Mrs Clinton won big among voters who decided in the last few days, when she questioned Mr Obama's readiness to be commander in chief and the sincerity of his pledges to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, which is blamed in Ohio for manufacturing job losses.

Under Democratic rules allowing the losers in each state to win a proportional amount of delegates, Mrs Clinton must win many of the remaining contests by big margins to close the delegate gap behind Obama.

Fact box

Delegates at national party conventions in August and September will be the key to selecting the Democratic and Republican candidates who will face off in the US presidential election on November 4. Voters choose the delegates state by state.

Here are the total numbers of delegates awarded so far in nominating contests to the leading candidates, as estimated by MSNBC.

Democrats (number needed for nomination 2,025)
• Barack Obama - 1,202
• Hillary Clinton - 1,042

Republicans (number needed for nomination 1,191)
• John McCain - 1,205
• Mike Huckabee - 248
• Ron Paul - 14

Democrats distribute delegates in proportion to candidates' vote state-wide and in individual congressional districts. That means candidates can come away with big chunks of delegates even in states they lose.

In contrast, most Republican contests are winner-take-all when awarding delegates. Mr McCain became the Republican nominee.

In addition to those elected state by state, a certain number of delegates at the conventions are set aside for members of Congress, elected state officers and other leading party officials.

These "super delegates" are not committed to a particular candidate and can back anyone they choose.