On the Republican side, Senator John McCain of Arizona won a commanding victory over Mike Huckabee in the Wisconsin contest and led by a wide margin in Washington State. All but assured of his party’s nomination, Mr McCain immediately went after Mr Obama during a rally in Ohio, deriding “eloquent but empty” calls for change.
For Mr Obama, Hawaii was his tenth consecutive victory, a streak in which he has not only run up big margins in many states but also pulled votes from once-stalwart supporters of Ms Clinton, such as low and middle income people and women.

In a speech in Ohio shortly after the polls closed in Wisconsin, Ms Clinton alluded to what her campaign considers Mr Obama’s lack of experience, and his support for a health insurance plan that would not initially seek to cover all Americans.

“This is the choice we face: One of us is ready to be commander in chief in a dangerous world,” Ms Clinton said in the remarks, which she also planned to expand upon in a speech in New York City on Wednesday. “One of us has faced serious Republican opposition in the past and one of us is ready to do it again.” Ms Clinton did not mention the Wisconsin results; she did, however, call Mr Obama to congratulate him on the victory. As Ms Clinton was speaking, Mr Obama appeared on stage at a rally in Texas, effectively cutting her off as cable television networks dropped her in midsentence, a telling sign of the showmanship power of a front-runner.

“Houston, I think we achieved liftoff here,” Mr Obama told a crowd of 20,000 people in that city as he hailed the voters of Wisconsin. “The change we seek is still months and miles away and we need the good people of Texas to help us get there.” It may not be enough at this point for Ms Clinton to simply win Ohio and Texas. She needs delegates to catch up with Mr Obama; under the rules by which the Democratic Party allocates delegates, she will need to win double-digit victories to pick up enough delegates to close the gap.