Obama sweeps weekend contests to up pressure on Clinton

Barack Obama has won the Maine caucuses today to sweep all five weekend Democratic contests, gaining new momentum and further narrowing rival Hillary Clinton's delegate lead in their epic battle for the party's presidential nomination.

Even before the loss in Maine, Mrs Clinton, stung by defeats a day earlier in Nebraska, Washington state, Louisiana and the US Virgin Islands, replaced her campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle.

The shake-up of her presidential campaign comes as the senator struggles to overcome Obama's financial and political rally that came on the back of his impressive showing in last week's Super Tuesday series of Democratic contests in 22 states.

The campaign reshuffle - in which Mrs Clinton installed her long-time aide Maggie Williams as her new campaign chief - came ahead of the so-called Potomac primaries - nomination races in Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC that she needs to win to widen her delegate lead in a deadlocked race that could last until the party's national convention in August.

The two states and the US capital all have sizeable number of African-American Democratic voters, a constituency that has aided Mr Obama in earlier contests.

In the latest overall totals in The Associated Press count, Mrs Clinton had 1,136 delegates to 1,108 for Mr Obama. The totals include so-called superdelegates, which are party leaders not chosen at primaries or caucuses, free to change their minds.

A total of 2,025 delegates is required to win the nomination at the national convention in Denver, Colorado, in late August.

In Maine, with 95% of the participating precincts reporting, Mr Obama led with 59% of the vote, to 40% for Mrs Clinton. Mr Obama won 15 of Maine's delegates to the national convention and Mrs Clinton won nine.

Mr Obama, who seeks to be the US's first black president, was buoyant after his weekend winning sweep.

He even won a Grammy today for his audio version of his book ‘The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream’, beating former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter in the best spoken word album category.

"I have the ability to bring people together," he said. Because of that, "I think I can beat John McCain more effectively," he said, in a reference that highlighted a shift in both his and Mrs Clinton's campaign aimed at addressing the challenge the presumptive Republican nominee would pose in the November general elections.

Mr Obama, campaigning in Alexandria, Virginia, before the state's primary tomorrow, said Mrs Clinton was "a capable person" and "vast improvement" over Republican president George Bush, but added that the public saw the New York senator as part of a divisive political era when the government was gridlocked and Republicans won control of Congress.

"I think it's very hard for Senator Clinton to break out of the politics of the past 15 years," Mr Obama said.

Mrs Clinton was not the only presidential candidate nursing weekend losses.

Mr McCain took the weekend off from campaigning despite embarrassing, albeit largely academic, losses against preacher-turned-politician Mike Huckabee in two Republican races on Saturday.

Mr Huckabee, a favourite of evangelical Christians, beat Mr McCain in Kansas and Louisiana, highlighting the difficulty the veteran Arizona senator faces in convincing the party's core conservative and Christian blocs that he is, indeed, one of them.

Mr McCain, however, remained far ahead of Mr Huckabee in the delegate count, and retained his virtually-assured nomination that came on the back of rival Mitt Romney's decision to suspend his campaign.

Mr McCain has 719 delegates out of a total 1,191 needed to secure the Republican nomination at the party's convention in St Paul, Minnesota. Mr Huckabee had 234 delegates.

Since his string of Super Tuesday wins, Mr McCain has concentrated on wooing conservatives who view him as a political maverick on key issues like immigration and tax cuts.

The former Vietnam prisoner-of-war and decorated US Navy pilot secured a boost when President Bush referred to him in a taped interview as a "true conservative".

Bush also stressed that Mr McCain must do more to win over conservatives.

In the Democratic race, Mr Obama appeared poised to sweep tomorrow's trio of races.

Former president Bill Clinton, who visited black churches in Maryland and Washington DC in a bid to cut into Mr Obama's huge lead among black voters, said that having to choose between his wife and Obama for the Democratic nomination is a God-given "dilemma".

New polls released show Mr Obama leading Mrs Clinton by 16% in Virginia and 18% in Maryland.

The polls conducted on February 7 and 8 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research had a margin of error of plus or minus 5%.

The remaining Democratic calendar for February does not look favourable for Mrs Clinton.

She is looking for a big rebound in the high-stakes March 4 primaries in Texas and Ohio, however.