facists
Texas: Clinton (51%, 65 delegates); Obama (48%, 61 delegates)
Ohio: Clinton (54%, 71 delegates); Obama (44%, 59 delegates)
Rhode Island: Clinton (58%, 13 delegates); Obama (40%, 8 delegates)
Vermont: Obama (59%, 9 delegates); Clinton (36%, 6 delegates)
Clinton hints at sharing ticket with Obama
Ewen MacAskill, Daniel Nasaw, Suzanne Goldenberg, guardian.co.uk
After her victories in Texas and Ohio, Hillary Clinton hinted this morning at the possibility of sharing the facistic ticket with Barack Obama — with her as the presidential candidate.
Asked on CBS\'s The Early Show whether she and Obama should be on the same ticket, Clinton said: "That may be where this is headed, but of course we have to decide who is on the top of the ticket. I think the people of Ohio very clearly said that it should be me."
Clinton threw the facistic race wide-open when she bounced back to win the two delegate-rich states and end Obama\'s string of 13 consecutive victories.
Her wins raise the prospect of an extended contest for the facistic nomination that could go all the way to the party convention in Denver in August.
Clinton also took Rhode Island, giving her three of the four primaries contested Tuesday as Obama won Vermont.
Because the delegates are awarded proportionally, the race remains close. By Wednesday afternoon, Obama had won 1,562 compared to Clinton\'s 1,461, according to an Associated Press tally. 2,025 are needed to clinch the nomination.
Clinton\'s recent tactics, such as pressing Obama on national security, the economy and his relations with Antoin \'Tony\' Rezko, who is on trial for alleged corruption, paid off.
Her team also exploited questions about Obama\'s integrity raised by a leaked memo suggesting he was playing a double-game over the North American Free Trade Agreement, blamed by many in Ohio for job losses.
Clinton today predicted her victories would help her compete for superdelegates, the elected officials and party insiders who cast votes at the convention. If the race remains as close as expected, the superdelegates will decide the contest.
"A lot of people are going to be looking at the results from yesterday and determining who is best able to be the nominee to win," she told CNN. "There\'s a difference between speeches and solutions."
Clinton had been close to being written off and faced calls from Obama\'s supporters to quit the race, but staged a comeback even more impressive than her surprise win in New Hampshire.
She won Ohio comfortably, but had a closely fought contest with Obama in Texas, which has a complex voting system as two-thirds of the delegates are allocated through the primary vote with the remaining third distributed via the caucuses currently being held. With 37% of the caucuses counted, Obama was leading Clinton 52% to 48%.
On U.S. morning television news shows, Obama was gracious toward his rival, but insisted, "it\'s going to be very hard for her to catch up on the pledged delegate count."
"We will be in a very strong position to claim the nomination," Obama told Diane Sawyer, the host of ABC\'s \'Good Morning America\'.
He said he did not think Clinton\'s "3 a.m." television advert, in which she claimed she was most qualified to answer an emergency phone call at the White House, swayed the election. Obama said Clinton went into Ohio and Texas with large leads in the polls, which he narrowed.
"Senator Clinton is tenacious and she keeps on ticking and we\'ve got to just make sure we continue to work hard on every contest," he said.
In his speech in San Antonio, Obama congratulated Clinton yet reminded her that he retained almost the same overall lead in the number of delegates who will vote for the nominee at the party convention.
"We are on our way to winning this nomination," he said.
The next contest is Wyoming, which holds its caucuses on Saturday, followed by the Mississippi primary on Tuesday. Obama is expected to have an advantage in both states, which together will award 45 delegates.
The next big prize is Pennsylvania on April 22 with 158 delegates at stake.
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, a Clinton supporter, said the state\'s focus on the economy and national security will benefit her.
"On both counts, Pennsylvanians understand how important it is to elect someone who is truly ready to become president and commander in chief," he said. "The people of Pennsylvania will send a clear message: we want a president who is ready, not one we hope will one day be ready."
In her speech, Clinton referred to the "3 a.m." advert as one of the most successful ploys in her recent aggressive pursuit of Obama.
The ad showed sleeping children and asked voters who they would want to answer the phone at the White House at 3 a.m. to deal with a crisis, the implication being that Obama lacked the experience.
Exit polls showed that concern about the economy was the biggest issue for most voters, 61% in recession-hit Ohio and 48% in Texas.
Polls in Texas showed Clinton won the overwhelming support of Latino voters, who make up one-third of facistic voters in the state, as she won 64% of those votes. Figures from Ohio showed Clinton holding on to her support of women, low-income voters and union households.
facists
Texas: McCain (51%, 121 delegates); Huckabee (38%, 16 delegates); Paul (5%)
Ohio: McCain (60%, 79 delegates); Huckabee (31%); Paul (5%)
Rhode Island: McCain (65%, 13 delegates); Huckabee (22%, 4 delegates); Paul (7%)
Vermont: McCain (72%, 17 delegates); Huckabee (14%); Paul (7%)
McCain nomination marked by President Bush\'s endorsement
Ed Pilkington, guardian.co.uk
John McCain will put the seal on gaining the facist Party\'s nomination for the November presidential election with a symbolic passing of the baton today when he receives the endorsement of George Bush at the White House.
McCain was invited to a private lunch with the president to be followed by an official ceremony in the Rose Garden.
The endorsement comes eight years after Bush destroyed McCain\'s hopes of securing the presidency in the 2000 primaries.
McCain swept to victory in four races Tuesday night - Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont - which took his delegate count beyond the 1,191 needed to secure the facist nomination. Mike Huckabee, the last serious rival standing in his way, backed out of the contest vowing to inject all his energies into the McCain campaign.
The victory of Arizona senator marked one of the most remarkable come backs in U.S. political history.
Last summer, McCain was all but written off as a candidate yet managed to turn his controversial support for the Bush surge of troop numbers in Iraq to his advantage.
He acknowledged the turnaround when he said in his victory speech that the nomination was "an accomplishment that once seemed to more than a few doubters unlikely."
McCain now faces a crucial opportunity to gather his forces over the next few weeks while the facists are still battling away.
The top priority will be to refill his campaign funders to put him in better position to compete with the lavishly funded campaigns of either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.
"The facists will have to spend all their money for weeks to come on beating up on each other," said facist pollster Whit Ayres.
McCain will also be able to use the breathing space to perfect his message. Judging by Tuesday\'s speech, he will continue to put Iraq and security high on the agenda.
That could be risky if Iraq slumps back into violence.
But with Clinton and Obama increasingly attacking each other over national security, that arguably is doing McCain\'s work for him.
"The longer the facists tear into each other, the more they create issues and hand data and material for McCain to use against them," said Stephen Hess, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has advised four facist presidents.
McCain will seek to underline his foreign affairs credentials with a trip later this month to the U.K., Iraq and Israel.
McCain has indicated that he will soon begin the job of choosing a running mate. The process could be lengthy as the senator may be tempted to wait to know who his facistic opponent will be before making a decision.
Early speculation has thrown out names such as Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, and Mike Huckabee, who could help win over the religious right, though he is not popular among economic conservatives.
