By Andrew Stern
JANESVILLE, Wisconsin (Reuters) - Riding a string ofoverwhelming victories, Democrat Barack Obama turned his focuson the ailing U.S. economy on Wednesday while his rival HillaryClinton looked ahead to contests next month where she hopes toregain her edge.
Obama and Republican front-runner John McCain cruised tovictories in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia onTuesday, with McCain moving closer to clinching his party'snomination for the November election.
Obama, who extended his hot streak to eight straight winsover Clinton in a hard-fought presidential campaign thatappears to be tipping his way, focused on the economy in aspeech at a General Motors plant.
"We are not standing on the brink of recession due toforces beyond our control," Obama said in remarks prepared fordelivery. "It was a failure of leadership and imagination inWashington -- the culmination of decades of decisions that weremade or put off without regard to the realities of a globaleconomy."
While Obama campaigned in Wisconsin, which votes next week,Clinton focused on contests in the heavily populated states ofOhio and Texas in three weeks as her best hope to stop Obama'ssurge.
Tuesday's victories allowed Obama to expand his lead inpledged convention delegates, who will select the DemocraticParty's nominee at its August convention.
The former first lady, who would be the first femalepresident, flew to El Paso before the votes were counted onTuesday night and was spending the day campaigning in Texas.She also launched a series of new ads aimed at Ohio and Texas.
Clinton focused part of her effort on courting Hispanics, ademographic she considers more in her camp than in Obama's.
McCain's wins over his last major challenger, formerArkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, had him looking toward a generalelection match-up with the Democrats despite continued qualmsamong conservatives about his views on immigration, tax cutsand other issues.
"We do not know for certain who will have the honour ofbeing the Democratic Party's nominee for president. But we knowwhere either of their candidates will lead this country, and wedare not let them," McCain, an Arizona senator, told supportersin Alexandria, Virginia.
Obama had 1,078 pledged delegates to Clinton's 969,according to a count by MSNBC -- well short of the 2,025 neededto clinch the Democratic nomination.
The first-term senator from Illinois who would be the firstblack president warned the road ahead would not be easy.
"But we also know that at this moment the cynics can nolonger say our hope is false," he said.
In the Republican race, McCain has built a nearlyinsurmountable lead in delegates to the party's nominatingconvention and became the likely nominee last week with thewithdrawal of top rival former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
McCain has won 801 of the 1,191 delegates needed fornomination while Huckabee has 240.
But exit polls showed McCain still had difficulty winningover conservatives. Those who described themselves as veryconservative accounted for about one-third of VirginiaRepublican voters, and two-thirds of those went for Huckabee.
Huckabee, a Baptist minister whose rise has been fuelled bystrong support from religious conservatives, said he would keeppushing in the race.
"We march on," Huckabee said on Fox News Channel.
(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan, Tim Gaynor, JohnWhitesides, writing by Deborah Charles; editing by DavidWiessler)
(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visitReuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online athttp://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)
