Super Tuesday Results

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GEORGIA Barack Obama has won the Democratic primary in Georgia.

WEST VIRGINIA Mike Huckabee has won the Republican caucuses in West Virginia.

Updated at 8:07pm Pacific Time - Delegates gained so far on Super Tuesday (results updated as they are announced):

McCain: 271
Romney: 41
Huckabee: 25
Clinton: 58
Obama: 56

Kansas governor calls for cooperation

Democrats in the midst of their own roiling presidential nomination fight followed President Bush's State of the Union address not so much with a response as with their own theme of bipartisan cooperation.

Their messenger Monday night was Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a red-state Democrat touted by congressional leaders as a symbol of bipartisanship.

"In this time, normally reserved for the partisan response, I hope to offer you something more: an American response," Sebelius said from the governor's mansion in Topeka. "There is a chance, Mr. President, in the next 357 days, to get real results and give the American people renewed optimism that their challenges are the top priority."

Her remarks followed criticism last week by Democratic congressional leaders that was plenty partisan. They demanded that Bush accomplish a string of Democratic objectives that he was unlikely to consider in the last year of his administration.

In a softer tone than the Democrats' last week, Sebelius invited Bush to take a series of legislative actions Democrats want, such as signing a bill he's vetoed twice to expand federal health care coverage from 6 million to 10 million children.

"Join us, Mr. President, sign the bill and let's get to work," she said.

Democrats aren't holding their breath for a presidential change of heart, and that was just the point.

The Democrats were aiming more for drawing distinctions with Bush than creating consensus in an election year with the presidency and their majorities at stake.

But the divide between the Democrats' own presidential candidates were hard to miss for its bitterness. After weeks of sniping, rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama arrived in the same House chamber for the same annual speech and sat in the same row.

The chances of good coming from the proximity were scant. Indeed, photos captured a split-second snub: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who hours earlier had endorsed Obama over Clinton, reached out to shake her hand when she came near. Obama, who was sitting between them, had turned away.

A doorkeeper, caught between it all, cringes in the photo that captures the moment.

It was pretty dramatic stuff compared to the going-away speech of a lame-duck president and the Democrats' follow-up.

In many ways, it was Obama's day. Sebelius also had endorsed Obama. She didn't mention it, but she included a line that echoed President Kennedy's inaugural address in 1961.

Kennedy said then, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

In Topeka Monday night, Sebelius said: "We are tired of leaders who, rather than asking what we can do for our country, ask nothing of us at all."

On policy, Sebelius made reference to the short-term stimulus package House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Bush announced last week, suggesting that "a temporary fix is only the first step toward meeting our challenges and solving our problems." The package of tax cuts still must be approved by the Senate.

"If more Republicans in Congress stand with us this year, we won't have to wait for a new president to restore America's role in the world and fight a more effective war on terror," Sebelius said.

Other Democrats were celebrating one thing they agree on: the end of Bush's presidency.

"Tonight is a red-letter night in American history. It is the last time George Bush will give the State of the Union. Next year it will be a Democratic president giving it," predicted Clinton, drawing cheers during a campaign stop in Connecticut before attending Bush's speech.

On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain, skipped the speech to campaign in Florida.

In the hours leading up to the joint session of Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid popped the bubble of bipartisanship even as he introduced Sebelius to reporters during a conference call. Discussing legislation to renew Bush's secretive domestic surveillance program, he suggested that Bush was trying to scare the nation into supporting permissive rules on domestic eavesdropping.

"The only thing the president does well is frighten the American people," he said.

Obama routs Clinton in South Carolina

Barack Obama routed Hillary Rodham Clinton in the racially charged South Carolina primary Saturday night, regaining campaign momentum in the prelude to a Feb. 5 coast-to-coast competition for more than 1,600 Democratic National Convention delegates.
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"The choice in this election is not about regions or religions or genders," Obama said at a boisterous victory rally. "It's not about rich versus poor, young versus old and it's not about black versus white. It's about the past versus the future."

The audience chanted "Race doesn't matter" as it awaited Obama to make his appearance after rolling up 55 percent of the vote in a three-way race.

But it did, in a primary that shattered turnout records.

About half the voters were black, according to polling place interviews, and four out of five of them supported Obama. Black women turned out in particularly large numbers. Obama, the first-term Illinois senator, got about a quarter of the white vote while Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina split the rest.

Clinton flew to Nashville as the polls closed, and looked ahead. "Now the eyes of the country turn to Tennessee and the other states voting on Feb. 5," she said, adding "millions and millions of Americans are going to have their voices heard."

Edwards finished a distant third, a sharp setback in the state where he was born and scored a primary victory in his first presidential campaign four years ago. Even so, he vowed to remain in the race, his goal, he said, to "give voice to all those whose voices aren't being heard."

The victory was Obama's first since he won the kickoff Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3. Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, scored an upset in the New Hampshire primary a few days later. They split the Nevada caucuses, she winning the turnout race, he gaining a one-delegate margin. In an historic race, she hopes to become the first woman to occupy the White House, and Obama is the strongest black contender in history.

The South Carolina primary marked the end of the first phase of the campaign for the Democratic nomination, a series of single-state contests that winnowed the field, conferred co-front-runner status on Clinton and Obama but had relatively few delegates at stake.

That all changes in 10 days' time, when New York, Illinois and California are among the 15 states holding primaries in a virtual nationwide primary. Another seven states and American Samoa will hold Democratic caucuses on the same day.

Obama took a thinly veiled swipe at Clinton in his remarks.

"We are up against conventional thinking that says your ability to lead as president comes from longevity in Washington or proximity to the White House. But we know that real leadership is about candor, and judgment, and the ability to rally Americans from all walks of life around a common purpose — a higher purpose," Obama said.

Looking ahead to Feb. 5, he added that "nearly half the nation will have the chance to join us in saying that we are tired of business-as-usual in Washington, we are hungry for change, and we are ready to believe again."

Nearly complete returns showed Obama winning 55 percent of the vote, Clinton gaining 27 percent. Edwards had 18 percent and won only his home county of Oconee.

Obama also gained 25 convention delegates, Clinton won 12 and Edwards eight.

Overall, Clinton has 249 delegates, followed by Obama with 167 and Edwards with 58.

Obama also gained an endorsement from Caroline Kennedy, who likened the Illinois senator to her late father, President John F. Kennedy.

"I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them," she wrote on The New York Times op-ed page. "But for the first time, I believe I have found a man who could be that president — and not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans."

All three contenders campaigned in South Carolina on primary day, but only Obama and Edwards arranged to speak to supporters after the polls closed. Clinton left for Tennessee as the polls were closing. After playing a muted role in the earlier contests, the issue of race dominated an incendiary week that included a shift in strategy for Obama, a remarkably bitter debate and fresh scrutiny of former President Clinton's role in his wife's campaign.

Each side accused the other of playing the race card, sparking a controversy that frequently involved Bill Clinton.

"They are getting votes, to be sure, because of their race or gender. That's why people tell me Hillary doesn't have a chance of winning here," the former president said at one stop as he campaigned for his wife, strongly suggesting that blacks would not support a white alternative to Obama.

Clinton campaign strategists denied any intentional effort to stir the racial debate. But they said they believe the fallout has had the effect of branding Obama as "the black candidate," a tag that could hurt him outside the South.

Nearly six in 10 voters said the former president's efforts for his wife was important to their choice, and among them, slightly more favored Obama than the former first lady.

Overall, Obama defeated Clinton among both men and women.

The exit polls showed the economy was the most important issue in the race. About one quarter picked health care. And only one in five said it was the war in Iraq, underscoring the extent to which the once-dominant issue has faded in the face of financial concerns.