pummelled Democratic rival in the latest round of their battle for the White House nomination today, earning momentum and valuable delegates with big wins in Washington and Nebraska caucuses.

Obama registered comfortable victories in both states, outscoring Clinton by margins of roughly 2 to 1, according to media projections.

His triumphs will boost the Illinois senator’s campaign to be the country’s first black president, after a fierce Super Tuesday duel that saw the two share the honours.

It was not immediately clear how many delegates Obama picked up from his victories today with the two locked in a tussle for the 2,025 delegates needed to win the party’s nomination for November’s presidential elections.

Pete Crane, a caucus-goer for more than 30 years, said the turnout at a caucus in Bremerton, Washington, was "by far" the biggest crowd he had seen!

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"It was an incredible crowd, probably three times what it was four years ago,” Crane told AFP. The precinct went 32 to 12 Obama.

Results from the Republican Party’s Kansas caucuses today boosted the flagging campaign of Mike Huckabee, who won the state with some 60% of the vote to 24% for John McCain.

The Vietnam war hero, McCain, 71, is virtually assured of the party’s nomination for the November elections, but Huckabee, an ordained Baptist preacher, has been doing well in conservative, rural states.

"I majored in miracles, and I still believe in them," he told supporters today, warning McCain "the game is on".

In a sign that McCain is still viewed with suspicion by many Republicans, a straw poll taken at a conference of conservative activists handed a slim victory to former rival Mitt Romney who dropped out of the race on Thursday.

With the results from today’s vote in Louisiana still to come, Clinton and Obama were already eyeing new battlegrounds. Maine, the country’s northeastern-most state, votes tomorrow to decide 34 delegates.

Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC, all hold primaries on Tuesday where another 200 delegates are at stake. But the next big date will be March 4 when the two will be hoping to mine a rich seam of delegates in Texas and Ohio.

Clinton, 60, and Obama, 46, were both addressing a key Democratic dinner in Richmond, Virginia late today, the first time they were to share a platform since Super Tuesday.

A tally by independent pollsters RealClearPolitics today put Clinton, bidding to the country’s first woman president, marginally ahead in the delegate count, with 1,076 to Obama’s 1,015.

A national Newsweek poll out on Friday had Obama surpassing Clinton’s once-overwhelming lead for the first time.

It gave Obama 42% support compared to 41% for Clinton. Nevertheless, in the survey of 1,394 registered voters, a large 17% remained undecided, underscoring the need for both candidates to continue fighting for support, voter by voter.

In Washington, Obama’s soaring message of change had registered with voters at caucuses across the northwestern state.

"I’m a big fan of Senator Clinton and I thought long and hard about my decision, but ultimately I think Senator Obama is going to unify and govern in a way that will be very positive for the nation," said caucus-goer Paul Steven-Miller, a former White House policy adviser to ex-president Bill Clinton.

Obama meanwhile stood favoured to outperform Clinton in Virginia and Maryland, in part due to the high number of African-American voters.
Virginia Governor Tim Kaine said he endorsed Obama because "he is a unifier in times of bitter division".

"He is an agent of change at a time when our nation needs change."