McCain, Clinton bounce back

WASHINGTON — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., scored comeback primary wins in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island on Tuesday night, denting Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s delegate lead in the Democratic presidential race even though he won Vermont. Arizona Sen. John McCain, meanwhile, clinched the Republican nomination.

Clinton won the primary in the Lone Star State, but Texas has a complicated primary-caucus hybrid system. Tuesday night caucuses, which are used to select 35 percent of the state’s delegates, were marred by delays and late Tuesday the Clinton campaign accused Obama workers of illegally registering caucus-goers in eight precincts before they were allowed.

Early today, with 22 percent of caucuses reporting, Obama had 55 percent to Clinton’s 44 percent.

Clinton’s triumphs ended a month of defeats for the former first lady, who told jubilant supporters, “We’re going on, we’re going strong and we’re going all the way.”

Both Democrats called McCain to congratulate him on his triumph.

McCain surpassed the 1,191 delegates needed to win the GOP nomination, completing a remarkable comeback that began in the snows of New Hampshire eight weeks ago. President Bush invited him to lunch — and an endorsement — at the White House today.

McCain’s last remaining major rival, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, conceded defeat after a campaign that included a stunning victory in Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3. “My commitment to him and the party is to do everything possible to unite our party, but more important to unite our country so that we can be the best we can be,” Huckabee said.

Signaling the broad outlines of his fall campaign, McCain scolded the two Democrats for opposing the war in Iraq, accused them of offering “big government” solutions and, in a veiled shot at Obama’s speeches, suggested Americans “aren’t interested in an election that offers platitudes instead of principles.”

With their remarks, first Clinton then Obama sought to frame the race in the best possible terms for their own campaigns.

“They call Ohio a bellwether state, the battleground state. It’s a state that knows how to pick a president and no candidate in recent history, Democrat or Republican, has won the White House without winning the Ohio primary,” the former first lady said in Columbus.

“My husband didn’t get the nomination wrapped up until June (in 1992). That has been the tradition,” Clinton said later Tuesday in Houston.

No matter how the contests turned out, Obama noted Tuesday to Texas supporters, “We have nearly the same delegate lead as we did this morning and we are on our way to winning this nomination.”

Obama entered the day with 1,386 delegates to Clinton’s 1,276, according to the Associated Press; the tally includes estimates of unpledged delegates. It takes 2,025 delegates to win the Democratic nomination.

Because of the close tallies and Texas’ convoluted voting, it was unclear how many delegates each candidate won Tuesday.

Ohio

Democrats

Hillary Rodham Clinton55%

Barack Obama43%

Republicans

John McCain60%

Mike Huckabee31%

Texas

Democrats

Clinton51%

Obama47%