In the Super Tuesday battle for delegates for the Democratic nomination for president, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton battled to a split decision, most experts and pundits agree.
All yesterday did was set the stage for more of what has become an intense struggle to be number one when the Democratic National Convention happens this Summer in Denver from August 25-28.
On the other hand, on the Republican side, Arizona Senator John McCain inched closer to securing the presidential nomination on Tuesday night, but was hampered in his hopes of emerging as the de facto nominee by a strong showing by former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.
Illinois Senator Barack Obama defeated New York Senator Hillary Clinton by sizable margins in Georgia, Alabama, Kansas, Minnesota, Connecticut and Illinois, his home state, while Clinton won easily in New York, New Jersey, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Somewhat surprisingly, the former first lady was also victorious in Massachusetts -- overcoming the endorsements for Obama from Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, the state's two U.S. senators.
But Obama, vying to become the first black president in American history, won a substantial share of delegates in states where Clinton had once held huge leads in public opinion polls.
"It's not over yet," Clinton, who would become the country's first female president, told supporters Tuesday night in New York. "Tonight, in record numbers, you voted not just to make history, but to remake America," Clinton said. (Scroll down for video of her speech to supporters.)
Meanwhile in Chicago, a spirited Obama once again reiterated that his campaign is in it to win it as well.
"We have to choose between change and more of the same. We have to choose between looking backward and looking forward. We have to choose between our future and our past." (Scroll down for video report of his Super Tuesday campaign and comments to his supporters.)
As things stand now, Clinton is leading the delegate count with 845 to Obama's 765. The uncommitted tally is 75.
On the Republican side, McCain has 623; Romney 269 and Huckabee trails with 190.
The early results showed some stunning advances for Obama in the deep South. The Illinois senator won about 60 per cent of the vote in Georgia, which has a significant African-American population.
More surprising, however, was that Obama won more than 43 per cent of white voters in the heart of Dixie. It was almost double the number of white votes he won in South Carolina's primary on Jan. 26.
The big gains among white voters suggest Obama's candidacy is increasingly crossing racial lines.
For Clinton, Tuesday showed her strength among Latinos, a bloc she dominated in California. But exit polls showed Obama narrowing the gap in Arizona, where he won about 4 in 10 Latinos, and his victory in the Colorado caucuses suggests he mounted a successful courtship of Latinos in key areas of that state as well.
On the Republican side, McCain scored crucial primary victories in delegate-rich states across the U.S. Northeast.
However, Huckabee showed unexpected strength in conservative states across the South and Midwest.
With the Democratic race still very much in doubt, Obama and Clinton began positioning themselves for the next set of primaries even before the polls closed Tuesday.
On Feb. 9, Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington state hold nominating contests. Then it's the so-called Potomac primary on Feb. 12, when voters in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., cast ballots.
In a conference call Tuesday with reporters, Clinton strategists conceded Obama is likely "favoured" in the remaining primaries to be held in February.
But Clinton aides said they believed the New York senator has a realistic chance of winning the March 4 voting in Texas and Ohio, the nation's second and seventh most populous states.
Howard Wolfson, Clinton's communications director, predicted the Democratic race will likely remain competitive at least until April 22, when Pennsylvania holds its primaries.
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