Barack Obama ran his winning streak to nine states yesterday with a double-digit victory over Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin that set the stage for potentially crucial primaries a week from Tuesday.
Obama, 46, whose chances of becoming the Democratic nominee continue to brighten, was expected to add a 10th-consecutive state early today when caucus results were tallied in his native Hawaii.
The Republican race, meanwhile, was nearing an end after John McCain won easily in Wisconsin.
"I will be our party's nominee," declared the Arizona senator, 71, now positioned to clinch the nomination as early as March 4. McCain used his victory speech last night to criticize what he termed Obama's lack of experience in foreign policy.
Obama, addressing a huge rally in Houston, said: "The change we seek is still months and miles away. ... We will need you to fight for every delegate it takes to win this nomination."
Clinton, who last won Feb. 5, is falling further behind in the delegate count. Party rules make it increasingly tough for her to regain the lead without a drastic shift in the direction of the race.
Addressing supporters in Youngstown, Ohio, she returned to her attack themes of the past week and asserted that Obama is unprepared to serve as commander in chief in a dangerous world.
"Only one of us is ready on Day One," said Clinton, who has made her experience the message of her candidacy. Increasingly, some of her supporters have criticized that strategy as Obama has started pulling away in a nomination race that appears to be turning on voters' desire for change.
Since Super Tuesday, everything has gone Obama's way, and there have been few, if any, signs that Clinton can stop him.
As he did in last week's Potomac Primaries, Obama ate into Clinton's coalition of women, working-class whites and older voters. White voters cast almost nine of 10 primary votes in Wisconsin, and Obama won a majority of them.
He split the votes of white women, Clinton's strongest support group, and won every age group except those over 65. He carried white men by roughly 25 percentage points, a key indicator heading into the Ohio primary.
Clinton has yet to demonstrate the breadth of support she would need to convince her party's superdelegates that she's the Democrat who can win in November.
