Democrat Barack Obama's three decisive wins over rival Hillary Clinton propelled him on Wednesday into the next round of presidential contests on a wave of momentum and sent her scrambling to find an answer.
Obama and Republican front-runner John McCain cruised to victories in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia on Tuesday, with McCain moving closer to clinching his party's nomination for the November election.
Obama extended his hot streak to eight consecutive wins over Clinton in a hard-fought presidential campaign that appears to be tipping his way. The victories allowed Obama to expand his lead in pledged convention delegates, who will select the Democratic Party's nominee at its August convention.
"This is the new American majority," Obama told supporters in Madison, Wisconsin, where the next showdown occurs in a week. "This is what change looks like when it happens from the bottom up."
Clinton, whose deputy campaign manager resigned in her latest staff shake-up, already was counting on contests in Ohio and Texas in three weeks as her best hope to stop Obama's surge.
"We're going to sweep across Texas in the next three weeks," Clinton said in El Paso, Texas, where she headed on Tuesday before the day's results were known. She made no mention of the three contests she lost.
McCain's wins over his last major challenger, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, had him looking toward a general election match-up with the Democrats despite continued qualms among conservatives about his views on immigration, tax cuts and other issues.
"We do not know for certain who will have the honour of being the Democratic Party's nominee for president. But we know where either of their candidates will lead this country, and we dare not let them," McCain, an Arizona senator, told supporters in Alexandria, Virginia.
All three of Obama's wins on Tuesday occurred in fertile territory for him, featuring large populations of the highly educated, high-income and black voters who have favoured the Illinois senator.
OBAMA EXPANDS SUPPORT
