Clinton: Still no congratulations for Obama
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2008/images/02/12/hill.bara.jpg caption="Clinton did not acknowledge Obama's winnings or congratulate him on his victories over the past two nights."]
EL PASO, Texas (CNN) – For the second election night in a row, Hillary Clinton failed to acknowledge or congratulate Barack Obama after he won the day in dominating fashion.
On Tuesday in El Paso, hours after Virginia had been called for Obama, she stuck to her “Texas campaign kickoff” message and did not stray from an energetic, Lone Star-themed stump speech. She did mention Obama by name, only to chide his health care plan.
On Saturday night in Richmond, Virginia, Clinton spoke to a crowd of thousands at the state’s annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner, but she ignored Obama’s quartet of blowout primary and caucus wins that day as well (Obama also won the Maine caucuses the next day).
The courtesy of conceding a primary or caucus loss - and then congratulating your opponent - is by no means required. But it has become standard practice during campaign season.
Clinton congratulated Obama and John Edwards after their first and second place finishes in the Iowa caucuses. Obama returned the favor in New Hampshire, saying Clinton “did an outstanding job.” That courtesy continued through the early states.
But as the race has shifted to a delegate chase with dozens of states in play around the country, the notion of congratulating one’s opponent seems, for Clinton, to have fallen by the wayside.
Exit polls: Obama stealing Clinton's base
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2008/images/02/12/obama.jpg caption="According to Virginia exit polls, Obama won almost 60 percent of the female Democratic vote."]
(CNN) - Barack Obama did well with Democrats across both race and gender lines Tuesday night, and seems to be eating away at Hillary Clinton's backbone of support: women.
According to exit polls out of both Virginia and Maryland, in both states Obama won roughly 60 percent of the female vote - a demographic that has carried Clinton to success in past primaries.
Clinton fared even worse among men – more than two-thirds in both states chose Obama.
Meanwhile, the Illinois senator scored his highest percentage of African-American support to date - winning close to 90 percent of that voting bloc in each state. And the two evenly split the white vote in Virginia, while Clinton slightly beat Obama among the white vote in Maryland. In most past primaries, Clinton has held an edge among white voters.
Obama even beat Clinton among Latino voters, a group that has heavily favored Clinton in most past primaries. In Virginia and Maryland, Latinos went for Obama over Clinton by 6 points, though their support was not decisive in either contest – only 5 percent of Democratic primary voters in Virginia, and 4 percent in Maryland, were Latino.
The only demographic Clinton won was white women, who broke for her over Obama by 10 points in Virginia and 13 points in Maryland. But that margin is significantly smaller than the national average on Super Tuesday. She beat Obama among white women by 25 points then, according to national exit polls.
(Updated at 10:15 with Maryland exit poll results)
For more on the Virginia exit polls, click here
- CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
Exit Polls: Obama wins among older voters in Maryland, Virginia
(CNN) - Older voters had been solidly in Hillary Clinton's camp in nearly every primary contest to date.
But according to exit polls out of both Virginia and Maryland, the New York senator lost those voters to Barack Obama in Tuesday’s primaries.
Among voters over 60, Obama beat Clinton by 8 points in Virginia and 4 points in Maryland.
That is a striking reversal from the trend in nearly every state to date - in an average of exit polls on Super Tuesday, Clinton beat Obama among voters 60 and older by roughly 30 points.
- CNN Ticker producer Alexander Mooney
Obama: 'We're on our way'
Obama spoke in the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin following his Potomac primary sweep Tuesday night. (Photo credit: Mike Roselli/CNN)
MADISON, Wisconsin (CNN) - Fresh off three more primary wins Tuesday night, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama brought his rising campaign to Wisconsin, where he will face off with rival Hillary Clinton, the junior senator from New York, next week.
"The change we seek swept through Chesapeake and over the Potomac," Obama told supporters.
"We won the state of Maryland. We won the commonwealth of Virginia. And though we won in Washington, D.C., this movement won't stop until there is change in Washington, D.C, and tonight we're on our way."
CNN projects McCain wins Maryland GOP primary
Track the Maryland Republican primary results county-by-county by clicking here: Maryland.
CNN projects Obama wins Maryland Democratic primary
Track the Maryland Democratic primary results county-by-county by clicking here: Maryland.
Clinton's deputy campaign manager resigns
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Hillary Clinton's deputy campaign manager has resigned, her campaign confirmed Tuesday night as the New York senator faced another round of disappointing primary results.
Mike Henry is the second senior staff-level departure from the Clinton team in the past three days. He was hired by Patti Solis Doyle - Clinton's former campaign manager - whose resignation was revealed Sunday.
"As someone who has managed campaigns, I share the unique understanding of the challenges that the campaign will face over the next several weeks," Henry said in a Tuesday e-mail to Clinton staffers.
"Our campaign needs to move quickly to build a new leadership team, support them and their decisions and make the necessary adjustments to achieve the winning outcome for which we have all worked so hard for over a year now."
Howard Wolfson, spokesman for Clinton's campaign, said that Henry had done "an outstanding job for the campaign and his expertise will be missed."
Henry, who helmed the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's independent expenditure program two years ago, was the author of an internal memo last year that suggested Clinton should skip Iowa - a proposal that was quickly dismissed when it became public.
A year earlier, he managed the successful campaign of Virginia's Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine, and was a lead advisor to former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner's campaign.
CNN projects that Clinton's rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, won Tuesday night's Virginia Democratic primary.
to this report.
Exit Polls: How McCain won Virginia
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2008/images/02/12/mccain.jpg caption="According to exit polls, Virginia voters felt McCain was more qualified to be commander-in-chief than Huckabee."]
(CNN) - Wealthy Virginia Republicans as well as those worried about the economy carried John McCain to victory there, exit polls indicate.
As has been the case across the country, more Virginia Republican primary voters ranked the economy as their top concern than pointed to any other issue, and those voters broke for McCain by 13 percentage points.
McCain also did well with high-income voters in Virginia. Among those making over $100,000 a year - a group that made up roughly 40 percent of the electorate - McCain beat Huckabee by 26 points.
Voters also felt McCain was qualified to be commander-in-chief than Huckabee. Roughly two-thirds felt the Arizona senator was more ready to be president, while one-third felt Huckabee was better prepared.
- CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
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