Democrats Draw Comparisons

Steve Justice of Democrats Abroad passes out ballots and registration forms for the Democratic presidential primary election held in Hong Kong. (By Nelson Ching -- Bloomberg News)

Dallek made another interesting comparison between the old rivalry of Kennedy and Johnson and the current competition between Obama and Clinton. "Johnson assumed in 1960 that his experience, his leadership in the Senate, his ties to all the principal leaders in the Democratic Party would be sufficient to propel him to the nomination," Dallek said. Kennedy instead went out and ran in the primaries -- there were only a handful then -- and convinced party bosses that he should be the nominee.

Clinton began with the same kind of inside connections as Johnson, while Obama had few. Instead, he has sought to prove himself through the primaries and caucuses, running everywhere he can. She has selectively competed, to her detriment, and now finds herself fighting to hold what establishment support she has long enough to demonstrate enough popular appeal to slow Obama's momentum.

-- Dan Balz

EXPATS GO TO THE POLLS

Obama Has Fans Abroad

Barack Obama's winning streak continued Thursday with his 11th straight victory in a primary or caucus.

The American expatriates represented by the group Democrats Abroad went overwhelmingly for their party's front-runner, who spent part of his childhood as an expat himself, living with his family in Indonesia. Voting in the Democrats Abroad Global Primary took place Feb. 5 to 12.

Obama won 65.6 percent of the expat vote, which numbered more than 20,000, to Hillary Clinton's 32.7 percent, according to the group. Voters in 30 nations cast ballots at polling stations, while others voted by fax, mail and -- for the first time this year -- online. Online voters submitted ballots from 164 countries and territories.

At stake were 4.5 pledged delegates. Obama won 2.5 of them, while Clinton won two.

"With the U.S. image so badly damaged by the present Administration, American Democrats living overseas were eager to have their voices heard," Christine Schon Marques, international chairman of Democrats Abroad in Geneva, said in a statement.

-- Garance Franke-Ruta