Senator Barack Obama rolled to victory by large margins in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia on Tuesday, extending his winning streak over Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to eight Democratic nominating contests.

The outcome provided him his first chance to assert that the Democratic race, which had seemed to be heading into a protracted standoff, is beginning to break in his direction.

And it left Hillary facing weeks in which she has few opportunities for the kind of victory that would alter the race in her favour after a string of defeats notable not just for their number but also their magnitude.

In Tuesday’s contests, Obama showed impressive strength among not only the groups that have backed him in earlier contests — blacks, younger voters, the affluent and self-described independents — but also among older voters, women and lower-income people, the core of Hillary’s support up to now, according to exit polls.
Obama also won majorities of white men and Hispanic voters in Virginia, though not in Maryland.

With almost all precincts reporting, Obama won 75 percent of the vote in the District of Columbia and 64 percent in Virginia. He had 60 percent of the vote in Maryland with results from 67 percent of the precincts.

McCain on a roll

On the Republican side, Senator John McCain won in Virginia over Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, virtually eliminating any threat that Huckabee might have posed to McCain’s status as his party’s all but certain nominee.

Huckabee got a boost from conservative and evangelical Christian voters in the state, but not enough to overcome support among moderates and non-evangelical Christians for McCain, who won 50 percent of the vote. McCain also prevailed in the District of Columbia, with 68 percent of the vote, and in Maryland, where he had 55 percent of the vote with 67 percent of the precincts reporting.

Obama’s victories gave him a lead over Clinton among pledged delegates, according to preliminary counts by the Obama campaign and some news organisations.

Obama aides calculate that he also leads in delegate counts that include so-called superdelegates, the party officers and elected officials who control 20 percent of the total delegates to the Democratic convention.