McCain clinches Republican nomination

5 Mar 2008, 1:50 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Republican John McCain clinched his party's US presidential nomination with four big victories over his last major rival, Mike Huckabee.

Republican John McCain has clinched his party's US presidential nomination with four big victories over his last major rival, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

The wins in Vermont, Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island gave McCain more than the 1,191 delegates needed to win the nomination. Mike Huckabee then withdrew from the race.

US President George W Bush is expected to endorse McCain at the White House on Wednesday.

In the Democratic race, Barack Obama scored an easy win in Vermont and rival Hillary Clinton won Rhode Island as she battled to save her presidential candidacy in big-state showdowns in Ohio and Texas.

Clinton's Rhode Island victory broke Obama's string of 12 straight victories in their hard-fought duel to be the Democrat who squares off against McCain in the November presidential

election.

Clinton, a New York senator, is under pressure to score wins in the two biggest states, Ohio and Texas, to keep her White House hopes alive and prolong the hotly contested Democratic campaign with Obama.

Turnout was heavy in all four states, and the Democratic campaigns of Obama, an Illinois senator, and Clinton traded accusations of irregularities at the polls in both Ohio and

Texas.

An Ohio judge granted a request from the Obama campaign to extend voting in some Cleveland-area precincts.

Few returns were available yet in Ohio, and Obama had a lead in slight, early returns from Texas.

For Clinton, a New York senator, wins in both Ohio and Texas would rejuvenate her campaign and send the race on toward the next major contest - Pennsylvania on April 22.

Losses in both, or possibly even one, could set off a stampede of party support for Obama, raise pressure on Clinton to drop out and make it even tougher for her to cut Obama's lead in the pledged delegates who will choose the Democratic nominee to contest November's presidential election.

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