02-20-2008, 01:44 PM
Wisconsin Hands Obama a Victory, the Ninth in a Row
Joshua Lott/Getty Images
<b>
With the two rivals now battling state by state over margins of victory and allotment of delegates, surveys of voters leaving the Wisconsin polls showed Mr. Obama, of Illinois, making new inroads with those two groups as well as middle-age voters and continuing to win support from white men and younger voters â a performance that yielded grim tidings for Mrs. Clinton, of New York.
</b>
On the Republican side, Senator John McCain of Arizona won a commanding victory over Mike Huckabee in the Wisconsin contest and led by a wide margin in Washington State. All but assured of his partyâs nomination, Mr. McCain immediately went after Mr. Obama during a rally in Ohio, deriding âeloquent but emptyâ calls for change.
For Mr. Obama, Wisconsin was his ninth consecutive victory, a streak in which he has not only run up big margins in many states but also pulled votes from once-stalwart supporters of Mrs. Clinton, like low- and middle-income people and women. Voters in Hawaii were also holding caucuses, but results were not expected until Wednesday morning.
Mrs. Clinton wasted no time in signaling that she would now take a tougher line against Mr. Obama â a recognition, her advisers said, that she must act to alter the course of the campaign and define Mr. Obama on her terms.
In a speech in Ohio shortly after the polls closed in Wisconsin, she alluded to what her campaign considers Mr. Obamaâs lack of experience, and his support for a health insurance plan that would not initially seek to cover all Americans.
Joshua Lott/Getty Images
<b>
With the two rivals now battling state by state over margins of victory and allotment of delegates, surveys of voters leaving the Wisconsin polls showed Mr. Obama, of Illinois, making new inroads with those two groups as well as middle-age voters and continuing to win support from white men and younger voters â a performance that yielded grim tidings for Mrs. Clinton, of New York.
</b>
On the Republican side, Senator John McCain of Arizona won a commanding victory over Mike Huckabee in the Wisconsin contest and led by a wide margin in Washington State. All but assured of his partyâs nomination, Mr. McCain immediately went after Mr. Obama during a rally in Ohio, deriding âeloquent but emptyâ calls for change.
For Mr. Obama, Wisconsin was his ninth consecutive victory, a streak in which he has not only run up big margins in many states but also pulled votes from once-stalwart supporters of Mrs. Clinton, like low- and middle-income people and women. Voters in Hawaii were also holding caucuses, but results were not expected until Wednesday morning.
Mrs. Clinton wasted no time in signaling that she would now take a tougher line against Mr. Obama â a recognition, her advisers said, that she must act to alter the course of the campaign and define Mr. Obama on her terms.
In a speech in Ohio shortly after the polls closed in Wisconsin, she alluded to what her campaign considers Mr. Obamaâs lack of experience, and his support for a health insurance plan that would not initially seek to cover all Americans.