Democrat candidates just running to stand still

TURNOUT was high as New Yorkers kicked off before dawn the 24-state primary bonanza which rippled across the US before the last polls closed in California at 4am Irish time and in Alaska at 5am.

A husky-voiced Senator Clinton, 60, vowed to fight on through polling day, even as opinion surveys picked up a surge by Mr Obama, the 46-year- old Illinois senator vying to deny her a return to the White House.

“There are a lot of people who worry that the president just doesn’t pay attention,” the former first lady said yesterday.

“I want them to know that I get it and I’ll be there for them if they’re willing to go out and vote for me today.”

Mr Obama earlier said it was likely that the voting would go on for weeks before a Democratic presidential nominee to stand in the November general elections was decided.

“We’re going to have time over the next month, month and a half, to continue the campaign — to continue to talk about how we’re going to deliver on affordable college, how we’re going to help parents who are juggling with issues like day care,” he said.

After several single-state contests, Super Tuesday embraced millions of voters in states from coast to coast.

It is the toughest test yet in the most expensive, intense, prolonged and unpredictable Democratic White House race.

Barring a major surprise, Ms Clinton and Mr Obama were tipped to emerge from yesterday’s vote locked in a dead-heat.

The first voter to emerge from one New York City polling station said he had voted for Mr Obama “for so many reasons”.

“I think Hillary has so much baggage, I want a black president whose middle name is Hussein and he seems like a great guy,” said Stuart Bernstein, 47, a literary agent.

Two Hispanic women said they had voted for Ms Clinton, whom they saw as a safe pair of hands and a friend of Latino and other immigrant groups.

“She has experience. We like her. She can be a good president,” said Elena Zingaretti, a 66-year-old Colombian-born domestic worker.

Ms Clinton went into the clash after pocketing wins in contests in New Hampshire and Nevada, while Mr Obama took the Iowa caucuses and thumped his rival in the South Carolina primary.

Super Tuesday states allocate more than half the Democratic delegates and almost half of Republican delegates at party conventions in August and September, which formally nominate candidates for November’s election.

US Democrats abroad were also getting their first chance to vote in Super Tuesday primaries in polling stations set up in clubs, bars and even churches in capitals from London to Jakarta.

Polls on Monday showed the Democratic race a virtual dead-heat. Ms Clinton led Mr Obama 45% to 44% in a USA Today/ Gallup national poll. A CBS/New York Times poll had the race deadlocked at 41%.