Washington: Hillary Rodham Clinton retains her lead among suddenly critical Democratic Party insiders even as Barack Obama builds up his delegate margin with primary and caucus victories across the country, according to a survey by The Associated Press.

Of the 796 lawmakers, governors and party officials who are Democratic superdelegates, Clinton had 243 and Obama had 156. That edge was responsible for Clinton's overall advantage in the pursuit of delegates to secure the party's nomination for president.

According to the AP's latest tally, Clinton has 1,135 total delegates and Obama has 1,106,with three delegates still to be awarded from yesterday's Democratic caucuses in Maine. A candidate must get 2,025 delegates to capture the nomination at the party's national convention in Denver in late August. The numbers illustrate not only the remarkable proximity between the two candidates, but also the extraordinary influence superdelegates could wield in determining who becomes the nominee. Both campaigns are aggressively pursuing superdelegates, trumpeting their endorsements the moment they are secured.

"I told my wife I m probably going to be pretty popular for a couple months," chuckled Richard Ray, a superdelegate and president of the Georgia chapter of the AFL-CIO labour federation. Ray said he will remain undecided because the labour federation has made no endorsement. "If they endorse, then I will, too," Ray said.

Obama wins in Maine to sweep weekend contests

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama completed a weekend whitewash over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by winning the Maine caucuses to sweep all five contests during the last two days.

According to unofficial tallies, Obama secured nearly 60 per cent of votes in the state, which has 34 delegates for the party's national convention in Denver, while Clinton managed just 40 per cent. The win capped an amazing weekend for the first-time senator, who also won in Nebraska, Washington, Louisiana and the US Virgin Islands on Saturday.

The shocking setback to Senator Clinton has sent her campaign scrambling for answers, and the first casualty was her campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, who has been replaced by the former first lady's long-time aide, Maggie Williams. Obama is expected to gain further momentum in his bid to become the first black US president in history by the time Tuesday's "Beltway" primaries in Maryland, Washington DC and Virginia are over.

Obama is is expected to win handsomely in Maryland and Washington DC, and he is also seen as leading in Virginia. With the Beltway primaries not expected to go Clinton s way, analysts feel the New York Senator must win in the big ticket states of Ohio and Texas in the beginning of March to keep her campaign's momentum going for another big contest in Pennsylvania.

Campaigning in Alexandria, Virginia, Obama said Clinton was a "capable person" but people see her as part of a divisive political era. "I think it's very hard for Senator Clinton to break out of the politics of the past 15 years," Obama said. "Senator Clinton starts off with 47 per cent of the country against her... That s a hard place to start," he said.

Bush to support McCain if he wins nomination

US President George Bush said John McCain has a lot of work left to convince Republicans, he is a "solid" conservative, but said he would support his one-time rival if McCain wins the party's presidential nomination.

"I know him well. I know his convictions. I know the principles that drive him. And no doubt in my mind he s a true conservative," Bush said in an interview on Fox News yesterday. But, Bush added, "I think that if John's the nominee, he has got some convincing to do to convince people that he is a solid conservative." "And I ll be glad to help him if he s the nominee."

Bush defended McCain, who ran against him in the 2000 presidential race, against criticism from the party's right-wing that McCain is not conservative enough to represent them. "Look, he's very strong on national defence. He's tough fiscally. He believes that tax cuts ought to be permanent. He's pro-life. I mean, his principles are sound and solid as far as I am concerned," Bush said.

But Bush, in his final year as president, refused to declare his preference between McCain and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who has remained in the race despite having little chance of overcoming McCain's massive lead. "I do want to make sure that you don't rope me into getting into this primary before it ends, because we have another conservative candidate in Mike Huckabee still running," Bush told Fox.

Source : PTI