Barack Obama's bid to be the Democratic Party's presidential nominee has come a step closer to happening.
On Saturday, the freshman senator from Illinois scored a clean sweep from the West Coast to the Caribbean. Then on Sunday he won again in the Maine caucuses, giving him even more momentum in a campaign where every delegate has become crucial to capturing the nomination.
On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee easily won Saturday's GOP caucuses in Kansas and narrowly won the Louisiana primary over his party's front-runner, Senator John McCain, giving a breath of life to the former Arkansas governor's uphill campaign. Meanwhile, the Republican Party chairman in Washington state declared John McCain the narrow winner of the state's caucuses, the Associated Press reported.
Obama won the Nebraska and Washington caucuses by greater than two-to-one margins against Senator Hillary Clinton and easily captured the Louisiana primary by a double-digit margin with heavy support among African-American voters. Obama also swamped Clinton in the US Virgin Islands caucuses.
Sunday, Obama once again defeated Clinton in the Maine presidential caucuses, grabbing a majority of delegates. Despite snowy weather and gusty winds, turnout was “incredible,” said Arden Manning, the state party’s executive director. Obama won 15 delegates to the national convention. Clinton won nine.
But because of the proportional awarding of delegates in the Democratic contests, the two contenders remain locked in a close battle for the 2,025 delegates needed to secure the party's nomination.
The attention now moves to Tuesday's "Potomac Primary," in which Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia will hold primaries.
Polls suggest Obama is leading in Virginia and Maryland, and is expected to win in the District, so the Clinton campaign is banking heavily on wins in bigger states next month to keep her in the running.
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