By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats Barack Obama and HillaryClinton faced a protracted battle while John McCain took chargeof the Republican race after the "Super Tuesday" presidentialnominating contests in 24 U.S. states.
In the biggest day of U.S. presidential voting before theNovember 4 election to succeed President George W. Bush, Obamawon 13 states and Clinton took eight.
Clinton's wins included the key prizes of California andNew York, making for a virtual draw in the hard-foughtDemocratic duel.
McCain won nine contests, including victories in Californiaand the Northeast, to take a commanding lead in the Republicanrace.
The Arizona senator whose campaign was all but dead lastsummer captured a huge haul of the convention delegates whoselect the party's presidential nominee, taking several bigstates where delegates are granted on a winner-take-all basis.
Republican rivals Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee kept theirhopes alive and vowed to fight on, but could face growingquestions about the viability of their campaigns. Romney wonseven states and Huckabee won five.
"Tonight, I think we must get used to the idea that we arethe Republican Party front-runner for the nomination," McCaintold supporters in Scottsdale, Arizona. "And I don't reallymind it one bit."
RACE SET TO CONTINUE
The mixed results, with all contenders in both partiesscoring at least five wins, were set to prolong the nominatingraces that began in early January. A new round of contests in ahalf-dozen states are scheduled within the next week, includingMaryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
The close Democratic contest, which has generated widepublic interest, gives voters the chance to nominate acandidate who could be the first black U.S. president, Illinoissenator Obama, or the first female president, New York senatorand former first lady Clinton.
The Clinton and Obama camps said they expected Tuesday'sdelegate count to wind up relatively even. Overall, by earlyWednesday, Clinton had 845 delegates and Obama 765, theWashington Post said, well short of the 2,025 needed to win thenomination.
In the Republican race, the Post said McCain had 613delegates to Romney's 269 and Huckabee's 190, with 1,191 neededto win.
McCain, who lost the Republican primary race in 2000 toGeorge W. Bush, still faces a struggle to win overconservatives in the party, who have been unhappy with hisviews on immigration, tax cuts and campaign finance reform.
Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and wealthy venturecapitalist, has argued McCain lacks the conservativecredentials to be the party nominee.
ECONOMY TOPS ISSUES
Economic worries -- plunging housing values, rising energyand food prices, jittery financial markets and new data showinga big contraction in the service sector -- eclipsed the Iraqwar as voters' top concern in both parties, exit polls showed.
More than half the total delegates to the Democraticconvention in August and about 40 percent of the delegates tothe Republican convention in September were up for grabs inTuesday's voting.
But with no knock-out blow delivered, some commentatorsworried about a fresh round of divisiveness.
"Polls of Democratic voters on Tuesday made it clear thatthe politics of identity -- race, gender, class -- was drivingthe contest between Senators Barack Obama and Hillary RodhamClinton. In the Republican contests, the far-right fringe istrying to maul their party's front-runner, Senator JohnMcCain," said the New York Times in an editorial.
The coming contests "may only increase the pressure oncampaigns that are more than willing to bare their fangs," itadded.
Obama scored victories in Alabama, Alaska, Colorado,Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota,Missouri, North Dakota, Utah and his home state of Illinois.
Clinton won Arizona, Arkansas, California, Massachusetts,New Jersey, Oklahoma, Tennessee and her home state of New York.She went into Super Tuesday battling a wave of momentum forObama, who had surged in national polls on his message ofchange. New Mexico was still too close to call, U.S. mediasaid.
Because Democrats distribute delegates in proportion totheir vote statewide and in individual congressional districts,candidates can come away with large numbers of delegates evenin states they lose.
Obama maintained his strong showing among black voters butalso expanded support among whites, winning 40 percent inGeorgia, exit polls said. Clinton won heavy support from womenand Hispanics, exit polls showed.
McCain won in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware,Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York and Oklahoma.
Huckabee, a Baptist preacher and former Arkansas governor,won in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and West Virginia.
Romney won in Alaska, Colorado, Minnesota, Montana, NorthDakota and Massachusetts, where he served as governor, andUtah, which has a heavy concentration of Mormons. Romney wouldbe the first Mormon president.
Huckabee's wins were fueled by strong support fromevangelical Christians, and he split votes with Romney amongconservatives unhappy with McCain.
(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Claudia Parsons, SteveHolland, Ellen Wulfhorst, Andy Sullivan; editing by FrancesKerry)
(For more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters"Tales from the Trail: 2008" online athttp://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)
