The BG News

Issue date: 3/12/08 Section: Nation

Media Credit: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Mississippi master: Presidential candidate Barack Obama wins another primary.

JACKSON, Miss. - Barack Obama coasted to victory in Mississippi's Democratic primary yesterday, latest in a string of racially polarized presidential contests across the Deep South and a final tune-up before next month's high-stakes race with Hillary Rodham Clinton in Pennsylvania.

Obama was winning roughly 90 percent of the black vote but only about one-quarter of the white vote, extending a pattern that carried him to victory in earlier primaries in South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana.

His triumph seemed unlikely to shorten a Democratic marathon expected to last at least six more weeks - and possibly far longer - while Republicans and their nominee-in-waiting, Sen. John McCain, turn their attention to the fall campaign.

"Now we look forward to campaigning in Pennsylvania and around the country," Maggie Williams, Clinton's campaign manager, said in a written statement that congratulated Obama on his victory.

"I'm confident that once we get a nominee, the party is going to be unified," Obama said as he collected his victory.

But in a race growing more contentious, he took a swipe at the way his rival's campaign has conducted itself.

"We've been very measured in terms of how we talk about Senator Clinton," he said.

"I've been careful to say that I think Senator Clinton is a capable person and that should she win the nomination, obviously, I would support her. I'm not sure we've been getting that same approach from the Clinton campaign," he said in on CNN.

Obama picked up at least six Mississippi delegates to the Democratic National Convention, with 27 more to be awarded. He hoped for a win sizable enough to erase most if not all of Clinton's 11-delegate gain from last week, when she won three primaries.

Obama began the night with 1,579 delegates, to 1,473 for Clinton. It takes 2,025 to win the nomination.

Neither of the two rivals appears able to win enough delegates through primaries and caucuses to prevail in their historic race for the nomination, a development that has elevated the importance of nearly 800 elected officials and party leaders who will attend next summer's national convention as unelected superdelegates.

Continued...

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