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Clinton, Obama Digging In; McCain Seeks Quick Win

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By MARK Z. BARABAK and PETER NICHOLAS, Los Angeles Times

Published: February 7, 2008

With both candidates claiming the lead, Democrats dug in Wednesday for a prolonged nominating fight testing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's establishment support against Sen. Barack Obama's growing financial edge.

As Missouri tipped into Obama's column, giving him 13 Super Tuesday states to eight for Clinton, campaign strategists spent the day crunching vote totals to determine their share of delegates to the party's national nominating convention.

Their tallies differed - each side asserted they were ahead - but both camps agreed the numbers were exceedingly close, making for the most competitive Democratic race in at least 40 years.

Clinton revealed she had lent her campaign $5 million to keep pace with Obama's torrid fundraising. Separately, campaign insiders acknowledged that some staff members were working without pay, including campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle.

Clinton said Tuesday's results, including big wins in California and the Northeast, "proved the wisdom" of her personal investment.

Clinton and Obama ended 2007 on a near-even financial footing, but in January the Illinois senator raised $32 million compared with less than $14 million for Clinton.

McCain Foresees Victory

On the Republican side, the race for the nomination shifted into a new phase, with a now-dominant Sen. John McCain still facing at least a monthlong trek through 11 states unless he or party leaders can ratchet up the pressure on his rivals to bow out of the increasingly lopsided contest.

McCain emerged from Super Tuesday with more than 700 delegates to the party's national convention. That was twice as many as the total of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney or former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee - and fewer than 500 short of what he needs to secure the GOP presidential nomination.

"Hopefully, we can wrap this thing up, unite the party and be able to take on the Democratic nominee in November," McCain said. "I think we've got to wrap this thing up as quickly as possible."

Romney and Huckabee, however, showed little interest in backing out of the contentious race after each captured a swath of the country in Tuesday's voting.

Romney, who wrapped up low-delegate states in the West without any major breakthroughs, hunkered down in Boston with top aides as he prepared for a speech to conservative activists in Washington.

Huckabee, who showed surprising strength in the South, appeared on eight morning news-talk programs, vowing to go on.

After the one-day, nationwide voting blitz that taxed the financial and strategic resources of the candidates, the next contest is, in effect, the annual gathering of the Conservative Political Action Committee, where all three will appear separately.

Romney and McCain are to address the group this morning; Huckabee will speak Saturday.

All three will seek the blessing of an anxious and dissatisfied wing of their party that has been especially hostile to McCain.

'Full Speed Ahead'

With the Democratic candidates looking forward to seven more states voting over the next six days, Clinton promised no respite, despite a voice raw from overuse. "It's going to be a mad dash until Tuesday," the senator said in Washington. "Not a lot of time to catch your breath. We are full speed ahead."

In Chicago, Obama also claimed victory, asserting he not only won more states Tuesday but will beat Clinton in the delegate count once the final results are known days or weeks from now.

"I think the Clinton camp's basic attitude was that the whole calendar was set up to deliver the knockout blow on Feb. 5," Obama said. "We've got many more rounds to fight."

He waved off Clinton's proposal for a series of debates between now and March 4, when Texas and Ohio hold primaries. "I don't think anybody is clamoring for more debates," Obama said, noting there have been 18 so far. His priority, he said, was "to spend time with voters."

Given the way the Democratic Party divides its delegates - on a proportional basis, rather than winner-take-all - most analysts predict a long, grinding fight to the nomination.

"We're in for a state-by-state, delegate-by-delegate slog to the finish and it's likely to remain very close," said Mark Mellman, a longtime Democratic pollster who is sitting out the party primary.

The contest is not so much a split over issues or ideology, although the candidates have differences. Rather, it has turned into a competition between coalitions. For Clinton, it is women, Hispanics, older voters and the economically hard-pressed. For Obama, it is men, blacks, younger and more upscale voters.

Each would appear to enjoy advantages in the upcoming contests. For Obama, it starts this Saturday in Louisiana, a state with a large black population, and continues Tuesday in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, all of which combine big black populations with pockets of affluent white voters.

For Clinton, the prospects look promising next month in Texas, which is heavily Hispanic, and Ohio, an industrial state that has struggled economically. From here out, the major contests are primaries, not caucuses, and Clinton has done better in primary states.

The candidates have other strengths. Clinton, long the front-runner in the contest, leads Obama among "super delegates," the party leaders and elected officials whose status automatically gives them a vote at the convention. There are nearly 800 of them and these party establishment members could prove decisive if Clinton and Obama are still effectively tied at the end of the primary season in June.

Information from The Washington Post was used in this report.

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