Numbers elusive in tight race between Clinton, Obama

The voting Tuesday could catapult Obama into the delegate lead for the Democratic presidential nomination, although a clear total of how many delegates each candidate has amassed has been elusive.

The Associated Press this morning gives the lead to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York with 1,136 to 1,108 for Obama of Illinois. But the website Real Clear Politics gives Obama a five-delegate lead. Both include so-called "super delegates" -- elected officials and party leaders whose choice is personal and not tied to primary or caucus results.

All three contests Tuesday play to Obama's campaign strengths, with high numbers of well-educated and high-income voters, and large numbers of African American voters. Obama has also led Clinton in recent polls in Virginia and Maryland.

In fact, the next several contests are in states in which Obama is expected to do well before heading into the March 4 contests among voters that tend to favor Clinton: older and blue-collar Democrats in Ohio and Latinos in Texas.

But there was uncertainty over how strong Clinton's support might be should Obama continue to build momentum in the intervening states. And the Obama campaign announced today that it would begin airing television ads in Texas, signaling that he was not about to cede the state to her.

Concerns over the campaign's direction led Clinton to replace her campaign manager Sunday, four days after she announced that she had lent her campaign $5 million to compensate for an announced spike in fundraising success by Obama in January.

On the Republican side, which also holds "Potomac Primary" contests Tuesday, Sen. John McCain sought to shake off a rough weekend in which former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won two of three contests.

Huckabee scored a decisive win in Kansas and edged ahead of McCain in Louisiana. He also trailed in Washington state, where caucus results are still being tallied, by only two percentage points.

The contests had little effect on the delegate count, but were a clear indication that McCain, although he has the nomination all but locked up, still faces trouble unifying the party behind his candidacy.