McCain savours Super Tuesday election success

Atlanta: Senator John McCain was badly wounded at war decades ago, and in the past he's been hurt politically with his support for the war in Iraq, but on Wednesday he savoured a hard-fought victory.

The Vietnam veteran won more than twice as many delegates as his competitors in the Super Tuesday Republican primaries and caucuses.

But he still has a battle ahead - the Republicans are divided between security conservatives (worried about terrorism and Iraq) social conservatives (who oppose abortion and gay marriage) and fiscal conservatives (who want small government and low taxes).

Republicans are still voting along those three lines and McCain needs to unite the party.

The Democrats didn't have one clear winner; their results gave both of their candidates reason to claim victory.

Senator Barack Obama won a majority of the states, but Senator Hillary Clinton won bigger states and the delegate count was very close, even as the party tried to figure out its complicated maths of who won what, where.

Romney

The Super Tuesday primaries across the United States offered prizes to almost all of the candidates - only one man was left looking short-changed.

Mitt Romney, the Mormon tycoon who has invested millions of his own money running for president, was left in the unenviable position of denying he would drop out.

Romney did win his home state, Massachusetts, the heavily Mormon state of Utah and a few others.

But after personally spending a reported $35 million (Dh128.5 million), he was the clear laggard in the three-man Republican race behind Senator John McCain and former governor Mike Huckabee.

Romney is trying to paint McCain as a "moderate," and position himself as the "true conservative" in the race but Huckabee is working that segment of the party too, splitting their share of the vote. Romney's advisors are now huddling, considering whether to cut costs and staff, to keep the campaign alive.

After Super Tuesday, it looks like a sprint for the Republicans and a slog for the Democrats.

John McCain still has several primaries to go before he can collect enough nominating convention delegates to be sure he'll win - right now he's got about half.

But that is the direction the Republicans seem headed.

Their history suggests they are a party that likes to rally quickly around an acknowledged front-runner.

Tied

The Democrats are in exactly the opposition position, with a two-candidate race that looks essentially tied. Only one thing forces a campaign like that to end - running out of money.

But Barack Obama's fundraising surged to $32 million last month. And Hilary Clinton brought it $13.5 million.

Expect both to continue until their money or their hopes are exhausted.

Jonathan Mann is an anchor and reporter for CNN International

Mitt Romney, the Mormon tycoon who has invested millions of his own money running for president, was left in the unenviable position of denying he would drop out.