Candidates Look Ahead to Potomac Primaries

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McCain, Huckabee Score Important Wins

Voters in 24 states and American Samoa headed to the polls on Feb. 5 for the largest-ever "Super Tuesday" election. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) racked up crucial early primary victories from New York to California, while former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee won a series of contests in the South.

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At stake in the Feb. 12 contests in Maryland, Virginia and the District are 168 pledged delegates. Clinton plans to campaign tomorrow in Virginia, where Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) has endorsed Obama. Maryland's Democratic governor, Martin O'Malley, and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D) have endorsed Clinton.

Following the Potomac primaries are votes in Hawaii and Wisconsin on Feb. 19. Then come potentially key primaries on March 4 in Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont.

Obama told a news conference today in Chicago that he remains the underdog in the race because of voters' greater familiarity with Clinton.

"But we're turning into a scrappy little team," he said. "I think we are less of an underdog than we were two weeks ago." Then, he said, "We were a big underdog; now we're a slight underdog."

Obama said it is "way too early" to think that the nomination battle might drag on until the Democratic convention in Denver in late August.

"We feel confident, though, that the wind is at our backs, and we're just going to keep working hard," he said.

Obama rejected the idea that he would be more vulnerable than Clinton to Republican attacks if he became the nominee. And he warned that unpledged "superdelegates" should think twice before voting for Clinton at the Democratic convention if they are in a position to tip the nomination toward her.

"The Clinton research operation is about as good as anybody's out there," he said. "I assure you that, having engaged in a contest against them for the last year, that, you know, they've pulled out all the stops." He added, "The notion that, somehow, Senator Clinton is going to be immune from attack or that there's not a whole dump truck that they can back up in a match-up between her and John McCain I think is just not true."

If the nomination comes down to the superdelegates, Obama said, "I think we're going to be able to say that we have more pledged delegates, meaning that the Democratic voters have spoken. And I think . . . that those super delegates -- who are elected officials, party insiders -- would have to think long and hard about how they approach the nomination, when the people they claim to represent have said, 'Obama's our guy.' "

According to the Democratic Party, 796 unpledged superdelegates will vote at the convention, in addition to 3,253 pledged delegates. At least 2,025 delegate votes are needed to secure the nomination.

McCain told a news conference he was "very pleased at both the depth and breadth of our victory last night." He vowed, "We will unite the party behind our conservative principles and move forward and win the general election in November." He said he has canceled a planned trip to Europe this weekend to focus on the coming caucuses and primaries.

"So we'll be hitting the campaign trail tomorrow morning," he said. "And hopefully we can wrap this thing up, unite the party and be ready to take on the Democratic nominee in November." He said both Clinton and Obama are "moving further and further to the left," making for "a very spirited debate and one that we can carry from a philosophical standpoint."