Clinton and Obama close; McCain leads in U.S. vote

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

In their hard-fought duel for the Democratic nomination, Obama won 11 states and Clinton took seven on the biggest day of U.S. presidential voting ahead of November's election.

McCain, who had hoped to nail down the nomination with a big night, won seven states while rival Mike Huckabee won five and Mitt Romney took five.

The mixed outcome, with all contenders in both parties scoring at least five wins, appeared certain to prolong the hard-fought nominating races in both parties. More contests in a half-dozen states are slated in the coming week.

National exit polls showed more than half of Democratic voters ranked the ability to bring change as the top attribute for a candidate. Nearly one-quarter of Democrats voting in the party's 22 contests ranked experience, Clinton's selling card, as the most important attribute.

More than half the total delegates to the Democratic convention in August and about 40 percent of the delegates to the Republican convention in September will be apportioned in Tuesday's voting. The delegates will pick the candidates for the November 4 election to succeed President George W. Bush..

Obama scored victories in Georgia, Delaware, Alabama, Kansas, North Dakota, Connecticut, Utah, Minnesota, Colorado, Idaho and his home state of Illinois. Clinton won Arizona, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas, Massachusetts, New Jersey and her home state of New York.

Huckabee, a Baptist preacher and former Arkansas governor, won in Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia and West Virginia. Romney won North Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, Massachusetts, where he served as governor, and Utah, which has a heavy concentration of Mormons. Romney would be the first Mormon president.

(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Claudia Parsons, Steve Holland, Ellen Wulfhorst, Andy Sullivan; editing by Frances Kerry)