Super Tuesday has eliminated Hillary Clinton’s once-solid standing as the front runner in the race for the Democratic nomination, with Barack Obama now poised for a string of victories this month, including the primaries in Virginia, Maryland and the District on Tuesday.
Obama won 13 states to Clinton’s eight (with New Mexico still to be settled) on Super Tuesday and is in the once-unthinkable position of possibly edging her out in the delegate count as well.
Clinton’s top advisers predicted Wednesday that the race will be “neck and neck” for the foreseeable future and that Obama will likely fare better than she in the next round of contests — this weekend’s caucuses in Nebraska and Maine and primary in Louisiana, then in the Battle of the Potomac two days later.
Obama’s victories on Super Tuesday included a razor-thin win in Missouri, which has chosen the eventual Democratic nominee for decades.
“Hillary Clinton was considered to be the front runner by a large margin one month ago and now she is really, really struggling,” said St. Louis University political science professor and pollster Kenneth Warren. “What that means momentum-wise is enormous for Barack Obama, because now they see him as someone who can win.”
Clinton’s top aides confirmed Wednesday that Clinton lent her campaign $5 million of the $13 million she raised last month, highlighting her financial straits compared to the brimming coffers of Obama, who pulled in $32 million during the same period.
The large number of black voters in Maryland and the District could tip those contests to Obama, and he is expected to run strongly in Virginia despite its close ties to the Clintons.
“If Clinton doesn’t carry Virginia, that is a bad sign for her,” Howard University political science professor Lorenzo Morris said.
As of late Wednesday, election officials were still tallying Super Tuesday results. The Obama camp said their calculations show they will come out ahead in the delegate count, 845 to Clinton’s 836. Clinton’s top strategist, Mark Penn, said “it would be within a five to ten delegate margin either way.”
Despite his evident momentum, as well as his financial and strategic advantages, Obama sought to protect his image as an underdog.
“Two weeks ago we were a big underdog, now, we’re a slight underdog,” Obama said at a Chicago news conference.
On the Republican side, John McCain took a commanding lead on Super Tuesday, capturing 497 delegates, compared with 200 for Mitt Romney. But third-ranked candidate Mike Huckabee won several Bible-belt victories and 141 delegates, showing that McCain has yet to unify the party behind him.
