(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-02-06 12:37

WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton captured needed states Tuesday night even as Barack Obama ate into her traditional base of support on a topsy-turvy night where a ballot victory was not the only measure of success.

Hillary Clinton (D-NY) (C), her husband Bill Clinton (L) and their daughter Chelsea leave the polling place after voting in the New York primary election at the Douglas Grafflin Elementary School in Chappaqua, New York February 5, 2008. [Agencies]

The grand spectacle of Super Tuesday's coast-to-coast nominating contests marked a turning point in the Democratic presidential contest from euphoric election night victories to painstaking delegate counting.

In early results, Hillary Rodham Clinton won primaries in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts. Barack Obama was the victor in Georgia, Delaware, Alabama and Illinois and the North Dakota caucus. Altogether, 22 states were in play but neither candidate was to emerge with enough delegates to secure the nomination.

Obama had secured 43 delegates in early voting Tuesday, while Clinton had 32, though that did not include all the states where outcomes had been declared.

Preliminary exit polls of voters in primary states showed Obama encroaching on Clinton's voting base. Clinton had only a slight edge among women and with whites, two areas where she has generally dominated Obama. Clinton was getting strong support from Hispanics, an increasingly important voting bloc. But Obama led among men - including white men, a group with whom he has struggled for votes in most previous contests.

Those results augured well for Obama in contests in coming weeks.

The campaigns, like sports teams that have clinched a playoff spot, already have been preparing for the matches ahead. Obama has been advertising in states with primaries and caucuses over the next seven days. Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, all of which hold primaries on Feb. 12, play to Obama's strengths with black voters and upscale, educated voters.

Clinton strategists are looking over the horizon into March and April when Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania hold primaries.

Time could work against Clinton, however. Obama raised $32 million to her $13.5 million in January - a financial edge that will help him organize and advertise in the upcoming battlegrounds. On Tuesday, her campaign called for four debates between now and March 4, a sign that she wants to supplement her financial disadvantage with free media.

After a month of early contests - from Iowa to New Hampshire to Nevada to South Carolina - the two candidates have essentially divided the electorate into two component parts. He gets young voters, educated voters, black voters. She gets women, working-class voters and Hispanics.

Both candidates have worked hard to win over supporters of John Edwards, who dropped out of the presidential race last Wednesday after a third-place finish in South Carolina. They've spent a combined $20 million on advertising in Super Tuesday states. And whoever cuts into the other's base will gain an advantage.

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