The Vote

Obama: America in 'racial stalemate'

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Democratic Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday tried to stem damage from divisive comments delivered by his pastor, while bluntly addressing anger between blacks and whites in the most racially pointed speech yet of his presidential campaign.

Obama confronted America's legacy of racial division head on in a speech that tackled black grievance, white resentment and the uproar over his former pastor's incendiary statements. Drawing on his half-black, half-white roots as no other presidential hopeful could, Obama asserted: "This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected."

Obama expressed understanding of the passions on both sides in what he called "a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years."

"But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races," he said in a speech at the National Constitution Center, not far from where the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

Obama rarely talks so openly about his race in such a prominent way, but his speech covered divisions from slavery to the O.J. Simpson trial to the recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina. He also recognized his race has been a major issue in the campaign that has taken a "particularly divisive turn" in the last few weeks as video of his longtime pastor spread around the Internet and on television.

Obama said the sermons delivered by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright now circulating on the Internet and television "rightly offend white and black alike." Those sermons from years ago suggest the United States brought the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on themselves and say blacks continue to be mistreated by whites.

While Obama rejected what Wright said, he also embraced the man who inspired his Christian faith, officiated at his wedding, baptized his daughters and has been his spiritual guide for nearly 20 years.

"I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community," Obama said, speaking in front of eight American flags. "I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."

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Roundup: Hillary, McCain take Ohio primaries

Hillary Clinton wins Ohio:

COLUMBUS (AP) -- Hillary Rodham Clinton finally had a confetti night.

The Democratic presidential hopeful claimed victory in the Ohio and Rhode Island primaries Tuesday night, and said that means, "We're going strong and we're going all the way."

Despite a turn of fortunes that also saw her in a tight race with Barack Obama in Texas, the New York senator had an uphill fight to catch Obama's lead in delegates.

Confetti rained down on her Ohio rally as she took the stage. She told the crowd, "This nation's coming back and so is this campaign."

Earlier, Clinton broke Obama's winning streak by taking Rhode Island after Obama was declared the winner in Vermont. It was a costly rash of defeats for Clinton over the weeks, only partly redeemed Tuesday night because both Democrats divided the delegates at stake.

"Boy, thank you Ohio," she said, dragging out the "Ohhh."

John McCain also won the Buckeye state, en route to securing enough delegate to secure the Republican nomination for president:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- John McCain clinched the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, an extraordinary comeback for a candidate whose White House hopes were dashed eight years ago and whose second bid was left for dead eight months ago.

"The most important race begins," he said in an Associated Press interview.

According to the AP count, the four-term Arizona senator surpassed the requisite 1,191 GOP delegates as voters in Ohio, Vermont, Rhode Island and Texas put him over the threshold. The triumph came one month after his Super Tuesday coast-to-coast victories gave him an insurmountable lead in the delegate hunt and forced his chief rival, Mitt Romney, to drop out of the race.

"It's a very humbling thing, and I say that with all sincerity," McCain said of finally clinching the nomination.

Meanwhile, Huckabee decided his miracle was not going to come, and stepped aside from the GOP race.

And, even in the face of a possible momentum-shifting night for the Clinton campaign, Barack Obama is confident that the delegate math is on his side, and it will be hard for his competitor to make up sufficient ground.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Barack Obama suffered a setback Tuesday in his efforts to drive rival Hillary Rodham Clinton out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, but claimed the delegate math still is on his side.

"We know this: No matter what happens tonight we have nearly the same delegate lead as we did this morning and we are on our way to winning this nomination," Obama told supporters after Clinton broke the Illinois senator's winning streak.