Clinton and Obama draw in U.S. vote

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

McCain's coast-to-coast "Super Tuesday" wins in crucial states clarified the Republican race and put him on the verge of a stunning political comeback, while the Democratic picture grew murkier on the biggest day of voting to choose candidates for November's presidential election.

McCain won nine states, including victories in California and the Northeast, to take charge of the Republican race.

The Arizona senator whose campaign was all but dead last summer captured a huge haul of the convention delegates who select the party's presidential nominee, taking several big states where delegates are granted on a winner-take-all basis.

Eight states hold contests in the next six days, including seven Democratic battles in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington on Saturday, Maine on Sunday, and Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia on Tuesday.

SUMMER CAMPAIGN

"You have to look at the whole entirety of this calendar all the way through June, and project out where the pledged delegates are going to be," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters.

Obama won big among black voters, the party's most reliable supporters, while increasing his tally among white voters in some key states, exit polls showed. Clinton scored well with women and Hispanics as she swept Tuesday's biggest states.

McCain, who lost the Republican primary race in 2000 to George W. Bush, still faces a struggle to win over conservatives in the party, who have been angered by his views on immigration, tax cuts and campaign finance reform.

McCain and Romney were scheduled to address a conference of conservatives in Washington on Thursday, while Huckabee was scheduled to speak there on Saturday.

Huckabee said fund-raising has picked up and he expected to be competitive in upcoming contests in Virginia, Kansas and Texas.

Economic worries -- plunging housing values, rising energy and food prices, jittery financial markets and new data showing a big contraction in the service sector -- eclipsed the Iraq war as voters' top concern in both parties, exit polls showed.

(For more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)