By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent
Republican Mike Huckabee struck the first blow on Tuesday with a win in West Virginia, one of 24 states holding nominating contests on "Super Tuesday" that will yield a huge haul of delegates to this summer's conventions to nominate candidates for the November presidential election.
"The fact that we've made so much progress I think indicates that we've got the right message," Obama said on NBC's "Today" show.
Huckabee, a Baptist preacher and former Arkansas governor, won in the second round of balloting at the West Virginia Republican convention after Romney led on the first ballot. Huckabee was aided by McCain voters who switched to him to deny Romney a victory, drawing a protest from Romney's camp.
McCain criticized Romney for complaining.
Economic concerns -- plunging housing values, rising energy and food prices, jittery financial markets and new data showing a big contraction in the service sector -- have eclipsed the Iraq war as voters' top concern, opinion polls show.
A new Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll showed Romney leading McCain by 7 points in California, the biggest Super Tuesday prize. But McCain, a senator from Arizona, held commanding double-digit advantages in many of the largest states.
Among Democrats, the Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll showed Obama opening a 13-point lead on Clinton in California, where polls close at 11 p.m. EST (4 a.m. British time on Wednesday). Other opinion polls showed a much tighter race in California, and close Democratic battles in many other states.
"None of us really understands what the impact of all these contests on one day will be," Clinton said on ABC's "Good Morning America."
"I think everybody is flying blind on this one," he told reporters, saying it was much harder to judge the outcome in so many states.
In contrast, many of the 21 Republican contests are winner-take-all when awarding delegates, meaning a strong day by McCain could give him a commanding lead.
McCain predicted victory at an early-morning rally.
He then headed across country to California for one final campaign stop before returning to Arizona for the evening. "We're going to do well here, we're going to get the nomination," he said in San Diego.
The two also clashed after Romney dismissed one of the Republican Party's senior figures, 1996 presidential nominee Bob Dole, who had rebuked conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh for criticizing McCain.
(For more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)
