Can VA, MD and DC Tell the Vile Rotten-Crotch Hitlary to Step Aside Today?

http://youdecide08.foxnews.com/2008/02/12/clinton-hopes-to-blunt-obamas-momentum-in-potomac-primaries/

Obama Looks to Potomac for Another Primary Sweep, Huckabee Hoping for a

Miracle

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

WASHINGTON - Democrat Barack Obama, riding a tide of momentum, hoped to

sweep presidential primaries Tuesday in Virginia, Maryland and Washington,

D.C., while rival Hillary Rodham Clinton denied her campaign is in trouble

after a string of defeats and her campaign manager's departure. On the

Republican side, John McCain hoped to rebound with three wins Tuesday en

route to his likely nomination after embarrassing losses to Mike Huckabee in

weekend contests showed he still had much to do to convince the party's core

conservative blocs that he is one of them.

The Arizona senator lost contests in Kansas and Louisiana during the

weekend, but managed a narrow win in Washington state caucuses that

Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, is now challenging.

Obama seemed to be coasting into Tuesday's primaries after he overwhelmingly

won the weekend contests in Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington state, Maine and

the Virgin Islands.

He was favored to win Tuesday's trio of primaries thanks to higher numbers

of black and better educated voters, blocs that have aided his wins in

earlier matchups against Clinton.

Polls showed Obama with double-digit leads in both Maryland and Virginia,

where Gov. Tim Kaine campaigned at his side. The Illinois senator was

counting on big wins in the so-called Potomac primaries - named after the

river touching all three localities - to erase Clinton's slim delegate lead

for an edge in a contest that could stretch to the Democrats' national

convention in August.

"We need something new," the first-term senator told a huge rally of 17,000

people at the University of Maryland on Monday, dismissing the former first

lady's suggestions that he is not tough enough for the rigors of the

presidency.

"I may be skinny, but I'm tough," he said, drawing loud cheers.

Obama was traveling late Tuesday to Wisconsin, which votes next week, along

with Hawaii, where Obama grew up.

With the Clinton campaign all but conceding losses Tuesday, as well as in

other primaries during February, the New York senator prepared to fly to

Texas, which holds its primary on March 4. She is banking on strong showings

in Texas and in Ohio, which votes the same day, to blunt Obama's momentum.

Clinton generally has done well in larger states. She looks to draw support

from the large numbers of Latinos in Texas and lower-income, working-class

voters in Ohio.

"I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think I would be the best candidate,"

Clinton told reporters Monday as she campaigned near Baltimore. "So I'm

going forward - every day, we get to make our case to the American people."

Both the Clinton and Obama campaigns prepared to launch television ads in

Ohio and Texas on Tuesday, and added another debate to their schedule - Feb.

21 in Austin, Texas.

In hypothetical general election matchups, a new AP poll conducted after

last week's Super Tuesday contests found Obama edging McCain, 48 percent to

42 percent, while Clinton and the Arizona senator were tied - 46 percent for

Clinton to 45 percent for McCain.

Despite what the poll numbers suggest, Clinton's strategists argued that she

would be the stronger competitor against McCain because she has weathered

Republican attacks throughout her career in politics and public service.

Clinton, said her chief strategist Mark Penn, "has withstood the full brunt

of this kind of attack and will be able to neutralize what is likely to

happen particularly with a nominee who is not as well known."

"In a general election the Republicans would spring into action and quickly,

if he were the nominee, roll out his full record," Penn said of Obama.

Earlier Monday, the New York senator denied that her campaign is in trouble

after the string of losses and her campaign manager's departure.

"I'm still ahead in the popular vote and in delegates," Clinton said, though

the numbers do not fully support that statement.

An Associated Press tally shows Clinton with a slim lead among delegates -

1,147, compared to 1,124 for Obama. But an initial tabulation of the total

popular vote showed Obama likely to pull ahead once the results of states

that held caucuses are fully counted.

Speaking to reporters, Clinton said she feels very good about the state of

the race, even though she is not expected to win between now and March 4.

"We had a great night on Super Tuesday," Clinton said, referring to the 22

states that voted Feb. 5. Clinton won eight states to Obama's 13 but scored

in many of the biggest contests including New York, California,

Massachusetts and New Jersey. And they divided the delegates almost evenly.

Clinton, who is seeking to be the first female U.S. president, said the

decision by Patti Solis Doyle to step down as campaign manager was personal

and reflected the toll of the long campaign, not a problem with her job

performance.

She said Solis Doyle would remain a senior adviser. Maggie Williams, a

longtime Clinton confidante and former chief of staff from Clinton's days as

first lady, replaced Solis Doyle.

In the Republican race, McCain challenged the notion that he is too much of

a maverick for Republican conservatives as he picked up the endorsements of

Gary Bauer, an evangelical leader, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the

brother of President George W. Bush.

"We're doing fine. We're doing fine," McCain, a former Navy aviator and

Vietnam prisoner of war, told reporters in Annapolis, Maryland.

Bauer, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination in

2000, said in an interview with the AP that he wanted to "unite

conservatives" and that McCain's anti-abortion stance makes him a better

choice than Clinton or Obama.

Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, brushed off calls to drop his

presidential bid for the good of the Republican Party, saying "I still could

win. . Nobody thought the Giants were going to win the Super Bowl, either."

Huckabee also picked up the endorsement of one-time rival Rep. Duncan Hunter

of California.

Huckabee says he will drop out if he is mathematically eliminated - in other

words, once McCain racks up the needed 1,191 delegates. But that probably

cannot happen until April 22, when Pennsylvania votes.

For practical purposes, McCain already appears beyond Huckabee's reach.

According to the latest count by The Associated Press, McCain had 729

delegates to Huckabee's 241 delegates. One factor keeping McCain from

claiming a majority sooner is that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has

yet to release his 288 delegates despite quitting the race.