McCain pushes for GOP command; Clinton and Obama battle for Dems

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain swept a string of delegate-rich, East Coast primaries Tuesday night, reaching for command of the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Democratic rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama traded victories in a struggle from Connecticut to California.

"We've won some of the biggest states in the country," McCain told cheering supporters at a rally in Phoenix after pocketing victories in all regions of the country. An underdog for months, he proclaimed himself the front-runner at last, and added. "I don't really mind it one bit."

With 371 delegates, the Arizona senator was far ahead of his rivals in the competition that counted most.

Even so, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney said they were in the race to stay.

Neither Clinton nor Obama proclaimed victory on a Super Tuesday that sprawled from coast to coast, and with good reason.

"I look forward to continuing our campaign and our debate about how to leave this country better off for the next generation," said the former first lady, looking ahead to the primaries and caucuses yet to come.

Obama was in Chicago, where he told a noisy election night rally, "Our time has come. Our movement is real. And change is coming to America."

McCain, the early Republican front-runner whose campaign nearly unraveled six months ago, won in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Missouri, Delaware and his home state of Arizona to gain all 309 delegates at stake there -- well over a quarter of the total needed for the nomination. He also put Illinois and Oklahoma in his column.

Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, won a series of Bible Belt victories, in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee as well as his own home state. He also triumphed at the Republican West Virginia convention, and told The Associated Press in an interview he would campaign on.

"The one way you can't win a race is to quit it, and until somebody beats me, I'm going to answer the bell for every round of this fight," he said.

Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, won a home state victory. He also took Utah, where fellow Mormons supported his candidacy. His superior organization produced victories in North Dakota, Montana and Minnesota, and he, too, breathed defiance. "We're going to go all the way to the convention. We're going to win this thing," he told supporters in Boston.