By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent
Obama surged to the win in Georgia, the first of 24 states to finish voting on Tuesday, as he battled for advantage over Clinton and Republican John McCain aimed to knock Mitt Romney out of the race.
Clinton, a New York senator, was hoping to hold off a late surge by Obama, an Illinois senator who has almost caught her in national polls and leads in several states taking part in the coast-to-coast voting.
More than half the total delegates to the Democratic party convention in August and about 40 percent of the delegates to the Republican convention in September are up for grabs.
Huckabee, a Baptist preacher and former Arkansas governor, won in the second round of balloting at the West Virginia Republican convention after Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, led on the first ballot.
"This is what Senator McCain's inside-Washington ways look like: he cut a backroom deal with the tax-and-spend candidate he thought could best stop Governor Romney's campaign of conservative change," Romney campaign manager Beth Myers said.
"Generally speaking, rather than blame it on someone else, I suggest that he move on," McCain told reporters. "It's a bit insulting to Gov. Huckabee, who won that, by suggesting such a thing."
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 (0400 GMT 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.
(For more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)
