Hillary Clinton wins Ohio and vows to fight on

Hillary Clinton has won the Democrat primary in Ohio, and immediately promised to prolong her epic struggle with Barack Obama for the party's presidential nomination. Mrs Clinton, who on Monday said she was "just getting warmed up" after 14 months of campaigning, was also running Mr Obama close in Texas, the other major state to vote. She also won Rhode Island while her rival won Vermont. Defeat in both Ohio and Texas would have spelt the end for her campaign, after 11 straight defeats to Mr Obama. But she has dug into her reserves of energy and defiance over the past week, maintaining that victory was still possible and launching a series of strong attacks on her opponent's lack of experience.

Addressing a delirious crowd of supporters in Columbus, Ohio, Mrs Clinton said: "We are just getting started". "The people of Ohio are saying it clearly, we are going on we are going strong and we are going all the way. They call Ohio a battle ground state and a state that knows how to pick a president. No candidate in recent history has won the White House without winning the Ohio primary," she said.

Mrs Clinton's win came as John McCain sealed a remarkable comeback, clinching the Republican presidential nomination after winning four states by hefty margins. The Arizona senator saw off the fading challenge of Mike Huckabee, passing the required number of delegates. The victory was redemption for the Vietnam war veteran after losing the nomination in 2000 to George W Bush and almost dropping out of the race last summer when his campaign verged on bankruptcy. Speaking in Dallas, Mr McCain paid tribute to Mr Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who dropped out of the race. He said that during the presidential campaign he would defend his support for the Iraq war, and the case for continuing until the war was won.

Democratic aides are bracing themselves for a long night, with Mrs Clinton's supporters claiming she has halted Mr Obama's momentum and his backers responding that she will not secure the big wins she needs to stay in the race.Before the votes, in which some 370 Democratic delegates were at stake, Mr Obama had surged to clear front-runner status after 11 straight victories. The exit polls indicated that his lead of more than 100 delegates would not be dented significantly.
For Mrs Clinton, narrow victories in the two big states would give her a powerful symbolic boost and ensure she stays in the race at least until April 22nd, when the next big state Pennsylvania goes to the polls.

Mr Obama came from 20 points behind in polls in Texas and Ohio three weeks ago to be virtually tied before voting day. But in the 48 hours before voting, Mrs Clinton appeared finally to be putting him on the defensive. The former First Lady's strong performance followed a week of intense campaigning and relentless attacks on Mr Obama's record and readiness for the highest office.

Demonstrating a dogged fighting spirit, she refused to countenance defeat, making a pre-dawn appearance at an Ohio factory and making several national television appearances, including two popular comedy shows. After the 11 defeats, former President Bill Clinton said that his wife had to win both Texas and Ohio to stay in the race. But before polling stations closed Mrs Clinton sounded like she would continue her campaign if she only won Ohio, while her opponent sounded almost resigned to an extension of the nomination battle. "You don't get to the White House as a Democrat without winning Ohio," Mrs Clinton said at a polling station in Houston.

"My husband didn't get the nomination wrapped up until June (in 1992). That has been the tradition," she added, without mentioning that this year most primaries were held much earlier than in 1992.

"This is a very close race."

In San Antonio, Obama called Clinton "a tenacious and determined candidate".

The Illinois senator was forced onto the back foot over claims that he had misled voters over his commitment to reform the unpopular North American Free Trade Agreement, after the leak of a memo written by a Canadian consular official. The official said that a senior Obama economic adviser admitted the candidate's public criticism of Nafta, which is blamed for thousands of job losses in Ohio , was "just politics".

He has also faced renewed questions about his dealings with Tony Rezko, a Chicago businessman and associate who went on trial on Monday on fraud charges which do not involve Mr Obama. Mrs Clinton has succeeded in setting the political agenda in the final two days, touting her superior readiness in foreign policy with a controversial advertisement that featured the telephone ringing in the White House in the middle of the night.

SOURCE: telegraph.co.uk