Obama, McCain win Virginia, Maryland, D.C. primaries

Obama surged to the fore in the delegate race for the party prize with resounding primary victories Tuesday in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. On the GOP side, John McCain took another step in shoring up his credentials as the runaway Republican front-runner despite lukewarm support from the party's conservative base.

Obama and McCain spar from victory podiums

Obama, riding high on his eight contest winning streak, turned his words to the likely Republican nominee. “We honor his service to our nation. But his priorities don’t address the real problems of the American people, because they are bound to the failed policies of the past,” he said at a rally in Madison, Wisc. Alluding to Mr. McCain’s support of President Bush’s policies on the Iraq War and tax cuts, he said “George Bush won’t be on the ballot this November…the Bush-Cheney war, the Bush-Cheney tax cuts, will be on the ballot.”

McCain’s victory speech had some tart rejoinders aimed at Obama’s campaign themes.

“They will promise a new approach to governing, but offer only the policies of a political orthodoxy that insists the solution to government’s failures is to simply make it bigger,” McCain said.

Then he took a long verbal tour of Obama’s signature theme.

“Hope, my friends, is a powerful thing,” McCain said, “I have seen men’s hopes tested in hard and cruel ways that few will ever experience.”

He went on: “To encourage a country with only rhetoric rather than sound and proven ideas that trust in the strength and courage of free people is not a promise of hope. It is a platitude.”

Sore loser Hillary - refuses to congratulate Obama

For the second election night in a row, Hillary Clinton failed to acknowledge or congratulate Barack Obama after he won the day in dominating fashion.

On Tuesday in El Paso, hours after Virginia had been called for Obama, she stuck to her “Texas campaign kickoff” message and did not stray from an energetic, Lone Star-themed stump speech. She did mention Obama by name, only to chide his health care plan.

CBS delegate count:

Obama: 124, Clinton: 117, Edwards: 26

McCain 790, Huckabee 199, Romney 166

Barack Obama... today's headlines with excerpts

Obama takes on new aura of momentum

Who’s inevitable now?

With three landslide victories in Tuesday’s “Chesapeake Primary” in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., and a widening lead by any measure of delegates, Senator Barack Obama’s supporters have begun to suggest a case that, just a few months ago, was coming from Hillary Rodham Clinton: He’s a lock.

... There are 573 delegates up for grabs between March 4 and April 22. For Clinton to even things up, she needs to get 345 of those 573 delegates, or 60 percent – the sort of margin she won in her home state of New York.

Obama’s dramatic victories Tuesday also put him ahead in the count of pledged delegates even if Florida, whose delegates have not been recognized by the Democratic National Committee, was permitted to seat a delegation.

Obama money deal may happen

With seeming effortlessness, Barack Obama’s presidential campaign raises gobs of money each day and has put the fear of God into Hillary Rodham Clinton.

But if Obama wins the nomination, his well-oiled money-raising machine may go dormant, leveling the money playing field with John McCain.

This is due to Obama’s year-old promise to take public funding in the general election as long as his Republican rival does the same.

House Speaker Pelosi leaning towards Obama

A senior adviser to Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, has suggested that she – along with other “party elders” – will step into the ring if they feel that Democratic hopes of winning back the White House or maintaining control over Congress are being threatened. Ms Pelosi insists that she remains neutral in the race and that her “focus is on reelecting a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives”.

However, her voice would carry great authority among many uncommitted super-delegates on Capitol Hill – and she is said by one of those close to her to be leaning towards Mr Obama.