THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2008 NEWS 5A >> PRESIDENTIAL RACE ASSOCIATED PRESS ASSOCIATED PRESS Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., acknowledges supporters during a primary night rally Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio. Clinton is the projected winner of the Ohio primary. ASSOCIATED PRESS Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-III., and his wife Michelle, wave as they leave the stage during an election rally Tuesday in San Antonio. Obama won the Vermont primary for his 12th victory in one month's time. ASSOCIATED PRESS Republican presidential hopeful, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., reacts to the crowd at his primary watch party Tuesday in Dallas. McCain surpassed the requisite 1,191 GOP delegates to clinch the Republican presidential nomination. McCain clinches nomination; Hillary wins key delegates ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton scored comeback primary wins in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island Tuesday night, denting Barack Obama's delegate lead in a riveting Democratic presidential race. Arizona Sen. John McCain, an unflinching supporter of the war in Iraq, clinched the Republican nomination. Clinton's three triumphs ended a month of defeats for the former first lady, and she told jubilant supporters, "We're going on, we're going strong and we're going all the way." Obama won the Vermont primary, and sought to counter Clinton's claims that the night had been a race-altering event. "We have nearly the same delegate lead as we did this morning and we are on our way to winning this nomination," he told supporters in Texas. The two rivals also competed for support in caucuses in Texas that began 15 minutes after the state's primary polls closed. Both Democrats called McCain — a Senate colleague — to congratulate him on his triumph in the Republican race. The 71-year-old Arizona senator surpassed the 1,191 delegates needed to win his party's nomination, completing a remarkable comeback that began in the snows of New Hampshire eight weeks ago. President Bush invited him to lunch — and an endorsement — at the White House on Wednesday. McCain's last remaining major rival, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, conceded defeat after a campaign that included a stunning victory in the leadoff Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3. "My commitment to him and the party is to do everything possible to unite our party, but more important to unite our country so that we can be the best we can be." Huckabee said in Irving, Texas. Clinton won the Rhode Island primary with more than 58 percent of the vote. But Ohio and Texas were the big trophies of the night, rich in delegates and — according to Bill Clinton — must-win states for his wife. Her share of the Ohio vote was 55 percent in nearly complete returns, and she was winning nearly 51 percent in Texas. Obama was gaining roughly 60 percent of the Vermont vote. In the four-state competition for delegates, Clinton picked up at least 100, to at least 77 for Obama. Nearly 200 more remained to be allocated for the night, 163 of them in the Texas primary and caucuses. Obama had a total of 1,466 delegates, including separately chosen party and elected officials known as superdelegates, according to the Associated Press count. He picked up three superdelegate endorsements Tuesday, Clinton had 1,376 delegates. It takes 2.025 to win the nomination. With their remarks, first Clinton, then Obama, sought to frame the race in the best possible terms for their own campaigns. "They call Ohio a bellwether state, the battleground state. It's a state that knows how to pick a president and no candidate in recent history, Democrat or Republican, has won the White House without winning the Ohio primary," the former first lady said in Columbus. Clinton and Obama spent most of the past two weeks in Ohio and Texas in a costly, bruising campaign, with the former first lady questioning his sincerity in opposing NAFTA and questioning his readiness to serve as commander in chief. Polling place interviews with voters in both states suggested the criticism hit home, showing Clinton was winning the votes of late deciders in Ohio and Texas, as well as Vermont. Hispanics, a group that has favored Clinton in earlier primaries, cast nearly one-third of the Election Day votes in Texas, up from about one-quarter of the ballots four years ago, according to interviews with voters as they left their polling places. Blacks, who have voted heavily for Obama this year, accounted for roughly 20 percent of the votes cast. roughly the same as four years ago. The economy was the No.1 concern on the minds of Democratic voters in Texas, Rhode Island and especially in Ohio. But in Vermont, almost as many voters said the war in Iraq was their top concern. More than three-quarters of Ohio Democrats said international trade had cost their state more jobs than it had created. Roughly six in 10 of the Democrats who were questioned outside the polls Tuesday said that so-called superdelegates, who are party officials, should vote at the national convention based on the results of primaries and caucuses. That was unwelcome news for Clinton, who trails Obama among delegates picked in the states but holds a lead among superdelegates. Obama had campaigned hoping to land a knockout blow. As of March 1, his campaign had spent about $9 million on television advertising in Texas and about $4.5 million in Ohio; Clinton had spent about $5 million in Texas and about $2.3 million in Ohio, according to TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG, an ad tracking firm. Clinton showed no sign of surrender as she campaigned on Tuesday. "You don't get to the White House as a Democrat without winning Ohio," she said in Houston. "My husband didn't get the nomination wrapped up until June (in 1992). That has been the tradition," she added, without mentioning that this year most primaries were held much earlier than in 1992. "This is a very close race." For his part, Obama was already advertising in Mississippi, which holds its primary next week, and planned trips there and to Wyoming, which has weekend caucuses. Pennsylvania, the biggest single prize left, holds its primary on April 22. "All those states coming up are going to make a difference," he said. It takes 2,025 delegates to win the Democratic nomination, and slightly more than 600 remained to be picked in the 10 states that vote after Tuesday. HEALTH Snow may be unhealthy to eat ASSOCIATED PRESS A recent study found that snow — even in relatively pristine spots like Montana and the Yukon — contains large amounts of bacteria. PITTSBURGH — To the list of simple childhood pleasures whose safety has been questioned, add this: eating snow. Parents who warn their kids not to eat dirty snow (especially the yellow variety) are left wondering whether to stop them from tasting the new-fallen stuff, too, because of Pseudomonas syringae, bacteria that can cause diseases in bean and tomato plants. But experts say there's no need to banish snow-eating. "It's a very ubiquitous bacteria that's everywhere," said Penelope Denneho, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on infectious diseases. "Basically, none of the food we eat is sterile. We eat bacteria all the time." Children practically bathe in bacteria when they go to the playground, and Dennehy said they won't get anything from snow they wouldn't get from dirt. "We eat stuff that's covered with bacteria all the time, and for the most part it's killed in the stomach," said Joel Forman, a member of the pediatric academy's committee on environmental health. "Your stomach is a fantastic barrier against invasive bacteria because it's a very acidic environment." There are exceptions. "Tiny kids on formula a lot of times don't have the acid in their stomachs," making them more vulnerable to bacteria in general, said Lynnette Mazur, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas Medical School. Also, Forman and Mazur said that Pseudomonas can be a threat to people with cystic fibrosis. The study, published last week in the journal Science, didn't examine the effects on people. And experts say without further information, it is impossible to say what the bacteria could do to a child who eats extraordinary amounts. Some parents say they are not going to worry about their kids eating snow that looks clean. "My snow-eating concerns are generally more of the dirt-urine variety," said Kristin Lang, 37, of Maplewood, N.J., whose 2-year-old son Charlie has swallowed his share of snow. "When I heard bacteria, at first I went 'ew', said Tricia Sweeney, a mother of three in Cornwall-on-Hudson, N.Y. But as long as the kids eat snow as it's falling, "I think it's OK. I tell them not to eat it if it's on the ground." Enroll in a Kaplan comprehensive course option by March 31th and get $100 back through Kaplan's Rebate program. Take advantage of this limited time offer and enroll today! Classes are starting soon at the Lawrence Kaplan Center 1000 Massachusetts St. 1-800-KAP-TEST | kaptest.com/rebate HIGHER TEST SCORES GUARANTEED OR YOUR MONEY BACK.