Democrat Obama beats Clinton in Mississippi

Obama was leading Hillary Clinton in Guam's nominating contest

Democrat Barack Obama easily beat rival Hillary Clinton in Mississippi yesterday, giving him new momentum in their heated presidential fight as they head to the next showdown in Pennsylvania in six weeks.

Obama, who would be the first black US president, rode a wave of heavy black support to victory and extended his lead over Clinton in pledged delegates to the August nominating convention. The Illinois senator also won on Saturday in Wyoming.

Clinton revived her hopes in the Democratic race last week by beating Obama in primaries in Ohio and Texas, prolonging their bitter Democratic fight for the right to face Republican John McCain in November's presidential election. "What we have tried to do is steadily make sure that in each state we are making the case about the need for change in this country, and obviously the people of Mississippi responded," Obama said in an interview on CNN.

Clinton did not speak publicly after the result, but her campaign manager, Maggie Williams, released a statement thanking the New York senator's supporters in Mississippi. Both candidates were already in Pennsylvania yesterday, looking ahead to its April 22 contest that has 158 delegates at stake - the biggest single-state haul remaining in the race for the nomination.

Harsh exchange
While voters in Mississippi were still casting their ballots, racial remarks about Obama by a prominent Clinton supporter sparked a harsh exchange between the two camps. Clinton said she did not agree with the comments and called them "regrettable," but the Obama camp accused her of a double standard for refusing to rebuke Ferraro and remove her from her finance position with the campaign.

Obama's top foreign policy adviser resigned last week after telling a British newspaper Clinton was "a monster."

Exit polls in Mississippi showed Obama won about 90% of black voters, who were expected to make up about half of the state's Democratic primary electorate, and continued to hold big leads among young voters. Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, retained her advantage with older voters, exit polls showed. The two candidates have developed consistent bases of support within the Democratic Party. - Reuters