IDTA-test kits, for people and the planet.
SAIL
PS-Obama cites gains despite 'uphill climb'
Updated 1h 38m ago
Enlarge By Scott Olson, Getty Images
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama of Illinois makes a campaign stop at Major League Cuts barber shop Tuesday in Philadelphia.
CLOSE-UP: BARACK OBAMA
In-depth: Latest Obama news, video, photos, timeline, more ...
Barack Obama on the campaign issues: Iraq | Immigration | Health care | Education | Abortion | Gay civil rights
RESULTS: APRIL 22, 2008
USAPAPennsylvania
Complete results
Democrats Vote % Del
Clinton 1,097,530 55 52
Obama 895,407 45 46
89% of precinctsUpdated: 11:21 PM
Republicans Vote % Del
McCain 486,086 72 -
Paul 106,996 16 -
Huckabee 78,578 12 -
89% of precinctsUpdated: 11:21 PM
Digg Newsvine Reddit FacebookWhat's this?By Jill Lawrence and Fredreka Schouten, USA TODAY
PHILADELPHIA -- Unable to pull off an upset in Pennsylvania's Democratic primary, Barack Obama swiftly moved on Tuesday night to Indiana, in anticipation that the hotly contested battle with Hillary Rodham Clinton for their party's nomination would persist for at least another two weeks.
The Associated Press declared the former first lady the winner based on early returns and surveys of voters as they left the polls. Obama didn't stick around for the results, scheduling a rally Tuesday night in Evansville, Ind., with entertainment from Indiana's working-class hero, rocker John Mellencamp. Indiana and North Carolina, the next states in the primary lineup, vote May 6.
KEYSTONE VOTE: Clinton takes Pa. contest
INTERACTIVE: Track the race for delegates
Earlier in the day, Obama described himself as an underdog in the Pennsylvania primary and at the same time his party's all-but-certain presidential nominee.
The Illinois senator -- leading in national polls, states won and pledged delegates -- spent plenty of time and money trying to prevent a double-digit, momentum-building blowout for Clinton. Clinton was running ahead in the western part of the state, according to the Associated Press. But Obama was ahead in Philadelphia and its suburbs.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Democrats | Chicago | Philadelphia | Republicans | North Carolina | Illinois | Pennsylvania | Indiana | Mississippi | Barack Obama | Hillary Rodham Clinton | African-American | Catholics | ABC News | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | Evansville | Scranton | John Mellencamp | Gov. Ed Rendell | New Albany
In an interview Tuesday with XM satellite radio, Obama said with a laugh that "a win is 50 plus one" and anything else is a loss. But throughout the day, he repeatedly said he had made great progress in Pennsylvania and predicted he will be the party nominee.
"We were down 20," Obama told reporters at a Pittsburgh diner on Tuesday, referring to early polls of the state. "So this was always an uphill climb."
Surveys of voters leaving the polls showed Obama winning more than 90% of black voters and 60% of first-time voters. He won about four in 10 senior citizens -- a group that has been solidly for Clinton.
Obama predicted the nomination race would continue "until the last primary or caucus vote is cast" on June 3 and that Tuesday's results would not affect the outcome. He said he will win the nomination and dismissed Clinton's argument that he can't capture states in the general election that she won in the primary.
"There is going to be a clear contrast between the economic message between the Democrats and the Republicans," Obama said. He said he will ultimately win over older or blue-collar voters who currently prefer Clinton and "the party is going to come together after the nomination is settled."
After Tuesday night's rally, Obama plans to campaign today in New Albany, Ind., before going home to Chicago. He'll be back in Indiana on Friday.
The Pennsylvania contest came six weeks after Obama won the Mississippi primary, a political eternity fraught with challenges and setbacks. Some were self-inflicted, such as his remark that small-town voters here are "bitter" about their economic circumstances and "cling to guns or religion or anti-pathy toward people who aren't like them." Clinton and others seized on that to argue that Obama was out of touch with small-town America.
Then there was last week's ABC News debate in which Obama was forced to revisit several controversies and address new ones. Obama lost to Clinton by double digits among voters who decided in the past week, according to the survey of voters at the polls.
A number of built-in factors also complicated Obama's task -- among them Clinton's roots in Scranton; her backing from party leaders such as Gov. Ed Rendell; high concentrations of voters who supported her heavily in past primaries, such as senior citizens and working-class whites; and "some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate," as Rendell told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in February.
Obama countered Clinton's advantages with money -- by some estimates he spent nearly three times as much as she did on TV -- and a drive earlier this year to get independents and Republicans to switch their voter registrations so they could participate in the primary, which was open only to Democrats.
State officials said nearly 219,000 people registered to vote this year, 70% of them as Democrats. Also, more than 164,000 people changed their affiliation to Democratic.
Obama was also boosted by an endorsement from Democratic Sen. Robert Casey, part of a Pennsylvania political family revered by many Catholics and working-class voters.
The pair traversed the state playing basketball, bottle-feeding milk to a calf, sampling chocolate, tooting a train whistle and, in Obama's case, trying to bowl.
"It didn't go so well," Obama joked of his gutter-ball debacle Monday night to 10,000 people at a rally in Pittsburgh.
Still, he said, he had "fun in Pennsylvania."
